Glass ~y>y^84 3 
Book jrfcW^H 

PRESENTED BY 




late Pastor of th e 
first Independent Christian Church 
at Michmmd. Vh 'gin iu . 



SERMONS 



BY 



REV. J . B. PITKIN, 



LATE PASTOR OF THE INDEPENDENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH 



IN 



RICHMOND, VA. 



WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, 



BY REV. S. BULPINCH. 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY DAVID REED. 

1837. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by 
DAVID REED, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



5^ 



MINOT PRATT, PRINTER. 



CONTENTS. 



Memoir. - - - - - - 5 

Sermon I. 

Christ Crucified, - - 45 

Sermon II. 

The New Year, - - 67 

Sermon III. 

Divine Justice not inconsistent with Divine Love, - 87 
Sermon IV. 

On True and False Religion, - - - - - 105 

*Sermon V. 

Resignation, - - 131 

Sermon VI. 

On Copying the Character of God; eur Father, - - 145 
Sermon VII. 

On the Proper Manner of Preaching, ... 159 

Sermon VIII. 

The Duty of Mercy, Ig3 

Sermon IX. 

The Doctrine of Election, 199 
Sermon X. 

God the Father of all, _ 223 

Sermon XI. 

Human Guilt without Excuse, .... 247 
Sermon XII. 

On Contentions in the Christian Church, - - 261 



4 



CONTENTS. 



Sermon XIII. 

Godliness Profitable to all things, - 275 

Sermon XIV. 
Delivered on Thursday, the 4th of July 1833. * - 291 

Sermon XV. 

The Future Destiny of Man. - - - - - 313 



MEMOIR. 



'T is much to find a lovely human spirit; 
To keep it in its loveliness, is more ; 
But hardest and most excellent of all 
To win again that which had gone astray. 

Herder. 

The instruction imparted by biography is of two 
kinds, partaking respectively the character of warning, 
and that of encouragement. In the life of John B. 
Pitkin, we may find lessons of each description. 
His course was a peculiar one. It may teach the 
young and romantic, should these pages meet the eyes 
of any such, to avoid those dangers under which he 
nearly sunk. It may show the necessity of restrain- 
ing, in early life, not only the passions, but the too 
exuberant fancy. It may present a warning to those 
who act as spiritual directors of others, to temper with 
gentleness the occasional severity of their official duty, 
1 



6 



MEMOIR. 



and, like their blessed Master, ' not to break the 
bruised reed.' 

But other and more cheering lessons are afforded by 
the life of this voiing divine. We see him, for a time 
overborne by misfortune, censure, and a consciousness 
of error, yet not relinquishing the hope of better 
things, working his way upward to the light, and at 
length attaining and for years occupying the station of 
a faithful, successful, and respected minister of the 
Gospel ; wearing out his powers in the discharge of 
duty, and yielding his spirit at length tranquilly to God, 
with entire confidence in his accepting mercy. From 
this the advanced Christian may learn never to despair 
for others ; and the young straggler with temptation 
may acquire the more important lesson, never to de- 
spair of himself, and never to distrust the providence 
of God. Such has been the instruction which many 
pious minds have drawn from the histories of John 
Newton and of Thomas Scott. Had the subject of 
this memoir been permitted to attain their advanced 
age, it is hazarding little to say that he would proba- 
bly have equalled them in intellectual reputation and 
matured piety. 

John Budd Pitkin was born on the 24th of January, 
1802, in the village of Great Barrington, Berkshire 
County, Massachusetts. Mervin Pitkin, his father, 



MEMOIR. 



7 



was a native of East Hartford, Connecticut. The 
family, of which there are many branches in that sec- 
tion, trace their origin to the Pitcairnes of Wanvood 
Castle, Northumberland, England, of the fourteenth 
century. 

The subject of our memoir was left fatherless at a 
very early age. His constitution was delicate, and his 
mind imaginative from the first. Even as a boy, he 
was fond of solitary walks ; and whenever a thunder- 
storm came on, his animation amounted even to wild- 
ness. His conduct at such a time, as described by his 
mother, reminds us of a well known incident in the 
boyhood of Schiller, who once, while his friends were 
anxiously searching for him, was mounted in a tree, 
drenched with rain, but absorbed in admiration of the 
lightning. 

At the age of eleven, Pitkin first exhibited a deep 
religious impression. It was produced by the death of 
a young female acquaintance, who employed what was 
almost her last breath in gentle exhortations to him. 
' He reached home in the evening,' says his mother, 
1 mute and pensive. During several weeks he appear- 
ed unusually silent and abstracted, and if possible more 
tender in every expression. After having lingered 
near me one day, in a manner that foretokened some 
important communication, he at length tremblingly 



8 



MEMOIR. 



broke silence, while with interest and surprise I listen- 
ed to the confession of a fault committed many years 
before. He had presented an article of mine to a boy, 
not deeming it of value, and when summoned to ac- 
count had reported that the boy kept looking at the 
toy and asking for it, and eventually carrried it off. 
This fault it seems, upon a scrutinizing review of life, 
appeared the only blot on the leaves of eleven years, 
and when acknowledged, a cloud was visibly dissipated. 
After a silence of several weeks spent in retirement 
and rambles, he communicated the ebullitions of his 
mind first to his grandmother, by giving to her perusal 
his journal, about twenty pages of which breathed deep 
solicitude for his spiritual state. His reading at this 
time was chiefly confined to Scott's Bible, while his 
conversations and writing testified to the rapidity of 
his mental acquirements.' 

His attendance at religious meetings, whenever an 
opportunity presented, soon attracted notice. His 
pastor, the Rev. Elijah Wheeler, naturally observed 
his course with interest ; and by his advice, young 
Pitkin at the age of thirteen, became a communicant 
in the congregational church. Custom has, in most 
communities, associated with this act of 'joining the 
church' a degree of responsibleness to which the un- 
formed character of a boy of thirteen should hardly 



MEMOIR. 



9 



be exposed ; and we may be permitted, seeing what 
could not then be seen, to lament the well-meant ad- 
vice of the good clergyman. 

This connection with the church gave to young 
Pitkin an opportunity of developing too rapidly and 
too publicly, his uncommon powers. He was soon 
distinguished and commended as a speaker in juvenile 
religious meetings. He showed however a decided 
and proper aversion to public exhibitions of his fluency 
in prayer. ' He always maintained,' says his mother, 
c that the closet was the spot where extempore prayer 
should be made ; and though gifted in that exercise, (a 
trite term) in 1833 he expressed an intention, should 
his people concur, of introducing a form similar to the 
Episcopal one, into the Independent church of Rich- 
mond, of which he was the pastor.' 

At the age of fourteen, by the advice and aid of the 
Rev. Mr Wheeler, he entered as a beneficiary in Phil- 
lips Academy, Andover, with reference to an engage- 
meet in the ministry. He was admitted, in considera- 
tion of the advancement he had made, a year earlier 
than was customary in ordinary cases. The following 
Rules, composed at this time, may testify to the ear- 
nestness of purpose with which he entered on the work 
of preparation for the ministry. 



1* 



10 



MEMOIR. 



' REGULATIONS OF CONDUCT. 

1st. Will engage in no frivolous or vain conversa- 
tion at any time. 

2d. Will never speak without thinking of my words 
beforehand. 

3d. Will endeavor to preserve myself from passion 
as much as possible, but should I ever be overtaken 
by passion, will do nothing until I have counted 20. 

4th. Will never be absent from prayers in the family, 
and in our rooms, unless when absolute necessity requires. 

5th. Will never pass a day without reading one 
chapter at least in the Bible, unless in particular cases. 

6th. Will never pass an hour while awake, without 
sending up a desire towards heaven. 

7th. Whenever harassed by temptation will resort 
to prayer. 

8th. Will never pass a day without engaging in 
secret prayer three times, unless in particular cases. 

9th. Will arise at five in the morning, and retire at 
eleven. 

10th. While others are engaged in prayer, will en- 
deavor to preserve my thoughts from wandering. 

11th. Will walk, on the average of three quarters 
of a mile for every hour I study, or do some exercise 
in proportion. 

12th. Every morning will read this paper. And by 



MEMOIR. 



11 



divine assistance promise to conduct agreeable to these 
rules. John B. Pitkin. 

Andover, Phillips Academy, Oct. 2d, 1817.' 

The above copy of a paper which its author intend- 
ed for no eye but his own, has not been inserted here 
without some hesitation. But the subsequent events 
of Pitkin's life render it of importance to preserve such 
a testimonial of the purity of his youthful aspirations. 

After a few months, he returned from Andover, ex- 
hausted with study, and threatened with consumption. 
A year was spent in the recovery of his health, at the 
conclusion of which, he entered the academy in Lenox, 
Mass. He had spent but a few months there howev- 
er, when he returned under ciroumstances of the most 
remarkable character. His mind has been already 
described, as from childhood, unusually imaginative. 
He had never enjoyed an opportunity of acquiring 
that manliness of character which the instruction and 
example of a father alone can impart. His romantic 
tendency had been heightened by the two early noto- 
riety which he acquired in consequence of his joining 
the church ; and by a course of reading in which the 
life and works of Henry Kirke White appear to have 
held the foremost place. These, which might have 
administered the most suitable nutriment to a better 



it iEMom* 

regulated mind, were to him the source of an excite- 
ment which clouded his moral sense, and led him away 
from the path of duty. With his mind filled with 
wild schemes of literary ambition, and weakened by 
the disease from which his body was just recovering, 
he formed and executed a plan for the deception of 
his friends, in order that he might procure their con- 
sent to his leaving home, to make his fortune, obtain 
an education of the best kind, and rise to literary emi- 
nence. His plan succeeded in blinding his friends, 
who, astonished as they were at the wonderful fiction 
he imposed upon them, never suspected falsehood in 
the hitherto exemplary young student. And thus at 
sixteen, under circumstances which may palliate though 
they cannot excuse the offence, he committed an act 
whose consequences infused bitterness into all his re- 
maining life. 

It is needless to enter into the particulars of the story 
by which he obtained the consent of his relatives to 
his departure. A physician of the neighborhood con- 
veyed him in his carriage to the next town, from which 
he was to take the stage for New York. This gentle- 
man, whose profession qualified him to notice the in- 
dications of mental disease, returned home in some 
agitation. His first words were, in effect, 'This is all a 
delusion, a fiction ! Budd Pitkin is certainly crazy ; I 



MEMOIR. 



18 



never once suspected but that it must be truth, until I 
turned to leave him, and then a conviction rushed on 
ray mind, like a flood of light, that it was all a delusion. 
The fact is, the boy is crazy, and I think it not at all 
unlikely that Kirke White has been a powerful instru- 
ment in infatuating and bewildering him. He has now 
started to go to England and act the scenes over again. 
I credited the story not because there was one rational 
or probable thing about it, but because Budd Pitkin 
had told it, and I would have looked for deception as 
soon in a minister as in him. ' 

The surviving parent of Mr Pitkin coincides with 
the opinion thus expressed, in regard to her son's state 
of intellect at the time referred to. There are many 
grades of comparative sanity and insanity ; and we often 
find ourselves at a loss to determine the precise men- 
tal condition of an individual. Such a case was the 
one now before us. Some indications shortly after his 
return leave no doubt of the fact that his mind was not 
in a state of perfect health. And when the judgment 
was overclouded, there were not wanting motives to lead 
him astray. He wished to relieve his friends from the 
expense of his support ; he wished to see the world ; 
and his excited imagination presented brilliant hopes of 
celebrity and fortune. But neither plausible motives, 
nor excited imagination can make falsehood right. Pit-. 



14 



MEMOIR. 



kin did wrong ; and bitterly did he find cause to re- 
pent it. 

Ten or eleven weeks after he had left his home, a let- 
ter was received from him, mailed in New Jersey. It 
bore more evident marks than had yet appeared, of a 
disordered mind. He gave however, an account, con- 
sistent with his previous fictitious narrative, of the dis- 
appointment of his hopes. He soon after returned home. 
His friends judiciously made no inquiries, and he gave 
no information to them as to what had occurred during 
the interval. 

But his absence and his return had not passed unno- 
ticed in the village ; and the curiosity of the neighbors 
soon discovered that something was not right. It ap- 
peared that an investigation of the case was about to be 
made in the church of which the youth was a member. 
To avoid this was in his state of mind, considered in- 
dispensable ; and he was sent from home in company 
with his grandmother, Mrs Budd, who had adopted 
him as her son. They spent a few weeks together at 
Sandy Hill, N. Y. where some of their relations resi- 
ded. Thence Pitkin proceeded to Canada, where to 
use again the words of his mother, 'the mysterious hand 
of Providence conducted him to the bosom of a kind 
protector, hitherto unknown ; and here he remained in 
the vicinity of Montreal, pursuing the study of French 



MEMOIR. 



15 



as an amusement, and leisurely rambling about, for the 
space of a year ; while his anxious grandmother, through 
an uninterrupted correspondence, watched him at a dis- 
tance.' The friend referred to above, was Dr Robert 
Ducette, a Catholic gentleman, of Three Rivers, L. C, 
from whom the young traveller received proofs of the 
most paternal kindness. To that kindness was proba- 
bly owing, under God, his entire restoration to mental 
health. His letters, which at first were filled with num- 
berless visionary plans, became rational ; and when, 
after a year's absence, he returned to his home, he had 
been prepared by Providence to undergo the burden 
soon to be laid upon him. 

On his return from Canada, he entered an acad- 
emy at Aurora, N. Y. He had been already sus- 
pended from the communion of the church in Great 
Barrington ; and as his residence now became known, 
a letter was addressed to him, requiring him to re- 
turn and submit himself to the discipline of the church. 
This letter, by singular inadvertence, was sent to him 
unsealed. He replied by an earnest request for per- 
mission to make his confession by letter. This was 
refused ; and he proceeded to Barrington to submit 
himself to the judgment of his brethren. 

A church meeting was held, at his request, at which 
he read the charges made against him. ' These char- 



16 



MEMOIR. 



ges,' in the language of the Church Record, i he said he 
admitted, and many considerations might be mentioned 
as an apology, yet he would not plead them as an apol- 
ogy, — that he viewed them as wrong and as sins, for 
which he repented, and asked the church to forgive 
him.' He declined however, entering into particu- 
lars in relation to the past. An elderly member of 
the church was so much irritated at his silence, that he 
advanced a step towards him, and shook his clenched 
fist at him, with insulting words. No reply was made 
by the young man, and the church took no notice of 
this breach of order. 

It is painful to record such incidents as this ; but 
duty, alike to the dead and to the living, require it of 
us. Shortly after the death of Mr Pitkin, a prosecu- 
tion was commenced in the church against his widow- 
ed and desolate parent, the gravest charge of which 
was ' bearing false witness against the church.' Mrs 
Pitkin had complained of the treatment which her son 
had received ; and this complaint was construed into 
an offence. That lady has been excommunicated on 
the above mentioned charge, and others of less impor- 
tance. The author of this memoir cannot therefore, 
with justice to Mrs Pitkin, suppress the statement of 
those facts, which formed the ground of her complaint. 

The acknowledgment made by young Pitkin at the 



MEMOIR. 



17 



first church meeting not proving satisfactory, a second 
was held, at which he presented them in a more ex- 
plicit form. The question was now put, ' Will the 
church receive the confession of John Budd Pitkin, 
and remove his suspension ? ' Ten persons voted in 
the affirmative, — one only in the negative. 

It was now determined that a confession should be 
prepared by Pitkin himself, and read in church on the 
following sabbath ; and the members expressed their 
readiness to be satisfied with such a confession as might 
meet the approbation of the minister. The confession 
was accordingly read. It contained the acknowledg- 
ment which was required ; but the young writer, at 
this time only nineteen, had introduced some fine lan- 
guage, and some moral reflections which he thought 
appropriate, but which some of the church regarded as 
changing his act of penance into an exhibition of his 
rhetorical powers. The church refused to receive the 
confession as satisfactory; but on the next sabbath, a 
new and less ornate one was read by the pastor, to 
which the young man assented by standing up in his 
pew. 

He was thus restored to the communion of the 
church; but the transactions that had occurred had 
wounded him deeply, and he again left home, believing 
that he had enemies in Barrington, from whose designs 

2 



16 



MEMOIR. 



he could only escape by concealing the place of his 
residence. He found employment as a teacher in 
Maryland, and only returned to Barrington, after an 
absence of two years, at the earnest wish of his grand- 
mother, whose health was rapidly declining. After 
her decease he remained several months in his native 
town, and removed thence to Sandy Hill, N. Y. His 
purpose was to teach penmanship ; but being w T ell pro- 
vided with money for his present wants, he remained 
for a season comparatively unemployed, in the enjoy- 
ment of agreeable society, but in danger of contracting 
habits which would have been most fatal to him. It 
was before those decided movements had been made 
in the great cause of Temperance, which have dimin- 
ished so much the danger of youth, by pointing them 
to the sure safeguard, total abstinence. But Pitkin 
was designed for better things; and an exertion of 
church discipline was now perhaps the means of sav- 
ing him from impending ruin. A complaint was 
made against him by the Pastor of the church at Sandy 
Hill, to that at Barrington, of which he was still a 
member; he 'returned to Barrington,' says his mother, 
1 and, as I have learned on this trial, met the commit- 
tee, acknowledged his errors, and gave ample satisfac- 
tion. Three months subsequent, he attended the 
academy in Stockbridge, Mass. Here he resumed his 



MEMOIR. 



19 



studies with vigor, and as I have been informed by 
Professor Averill of Schenectady, a room-mate at the 
time, and others, secured the love of all around him in 
a very high degree. But as might be expected, out 
of all these wanderings and unmoorings, had grown 
the evil of a roving mind. He left the academy with 
the intention, I presume, of returning to it after a sea- 
son of writing schools, — mounted his sulkey, and I saw 
him no more for seven years, and then met him in 
Philadelphia, whither he had come from Richmond, 
Va., at the call of his dying brother. During this long 
space, I received very few letters from him, and- 
these were cautiously mailed where he was just going 
to leave. At this time he assured me, and in deep 
sorrow for the anguish he had most necessarily inflicted, 
that the course he had adopted was the only one of 
safety ; that he was perfectly aware of the fact, though 
unable clearly to trace its coilings, that for two or three 
years after he left Barrington, he was pursued by some 
hostile hand from that church ; thwarting all his pur- 
poses; and not until he had eluded their chase, could 
he hope to accomplish any thing to any purpose.' 

It appeared upon the trial of Mrs Pitkin, that her 
son's impressions were correct, respecting the vigilance 
with which his steps had been traced. Not less than 
twenty letters had passed between the Rev. Mr B — , 



20 



MEMOIR. 



the successor of Mr Wheeler, and various persons 
in other places, in relation to J. B. Pitkin. The idea 
however, entertained by him, that these letters origin- 
ated in hostile feelings, was doubtless incorrect. 

We have thus taken, we trust, an impartial view of 
the early history of Mr Pitkin. We have seen the 
fairest promise of childhood almost blighted by the very 
care that was taken to foster it too rapidly. His ear- 
ly connection with the church, his romantic course of 
reading, the admiration excited by his youthful piety 
and talents, all conspired to intoxicate his brain, and 
unfit him for that steady advancement in knowledge 
and goodness, whose fruits are precious in proportion 
to the length of time required to ripen them. This 
undue excitement renders tasteless to him the ordi- 
nary occupations of his age; he is seized with a desire 
of wandering, which displays itself at first in an expe- 
dition as blameable in its means as it was wild in its 
object. When he returned from this excursion, had 
he received only the judicious treatment of a kind fam- 
ily circle, the evil, already diminished by disappoint- 
ment, might have been remedied. But the errors of 
the boy are met with an array of public inquisition and 
censure that might have broken the spirit of a man. 
His friends are compelled, unless they would see him 
brought up to endure a trial which he is altogether 



MEMOIR. 



21 



unfit to bear, to send him forth to wander again ; and 
when after a year's absence, he returns, he is subjected 
to searching curiosity, to cruel insult, and to the degra- 
dation of a public confession. This sends him forth 
again, almost heart-broken. He wanders hither and 
thither. His moral principles are beginning to be un- 
dermined, though here a kind Providence interposes 
for his rescue ; and we willingly accord due praise to 
the exertions of the church in Barrington as the instru- 
ment of that interposition. But the habit of wander- 
ing seems to have become confirmed. He parts again 
from home, and from his supposed enemies. Finally 
his religious principles are beginning to give way ; for 
we learn that about this time, he was led to entertain 
doubts with respect to the truth of Christianity. Such 
is the history, as far as we have yet traced it, of John 
Budd Pitkin; a history full of instruction, but in which 
it would seem that few steps were wanting to mark the 
downward course of the once promising boy to mental 
and moral ruin. 

That Providence, in whose care the Christian trusts, 
though always operating, seldom perceptibly reveals 
itself. But sometimes it appears so distinctly, that we 
cannot but acknowledge the ruling hand. Was it a 
blind chance, which at this dangerous period of Pitkin's 
life, led him to an acquaintance with a more liberal 

2* 



22 



MEMOIR. 



system of Christianity, and thus drew him gently back 
to the path of religion, and of steady and honorable 
exertion ? We think not. We trace here the work- 
ing of a higher power. 

The situation and engagements of the author of this 
memoir have prevented him from obtaining as full in- 
formation respecting all parts of Mr Pitkin's life as 
might be desirable ; and it is of the period from 1824 
to 1829, that he possesses least information. It was 
during this interval that Mr Pitkin became acquaint- 
ed with the doctrines of the Universalist denomination, 
and resolved to prepare himself for the ministry in that 
connection. His sentiments on the subject of a future 
state coincided at this time, with those since distin- 
guished by the name of Restorationist. Mrs Pitkin 
writes, 'In 1829 I received intelligence from a friend 
journeying in Maine, that J. B. Pitkin was residing 
in that state, much respected and beloved, — was 
engaged in the study of Hebrew, with other requisite 
studies for the ministry. In 1830 I was informed by 
letters from different sources, that he was preaching 
the Gospel in that state.' It was his intention to avail 
himself of the facilities afforded in the Divinity School 
at Cambridge, for the completion of the studies which 
he had successfully pursued in private ; but from this 
purpose he was diverted by a summons to a field of 



MEMOIR. 



23 



labor which appeared to require his efforts. A soci- 
ety had been formed in Richmond, Virginia, under the 
name of ' Unitarian Universalist,' and Mr Pitkin was 
requested to officiate with them for a time. His la- 
bors at Richmond commenced in the autumn of 1830. 

In the commencement of the following year, he was 
deprived by death of a younger and beloved brother, 
Francis Mervin Pitkin, one of those youths whose ge- 
nius seems to be developed with preternatural rapidity 
and beauty, only that it may the sooner fade. The 
following extract of a letter, written to his mother on 
this occasion, will show the £ peace in believing,' which 
our wanderer had now found. 

c Richmond, January 31, 1831. 

c My dear mother, — I have just received your let- 
ter, containing the most afflicting intelligence of my 
poor brother's death. In the midst of wrath, God re- 
members mercy. The cup of bitterness is not all un- 
mingled. It gives me a satisfaction which I cannot 
express, that he gave evidence to your mind, of a sav- 
ing change. Had the nature of his disease been such 
as to have precluded a manifestation of such evidence, 
with your views of God's dealings with his creatures, 
you must have been rendered wretched in the extreme. 
To me it is a source of unspeakable joy, that in the 
trying hour of death, the love of God to a world of sin- 



24 



MEMOIR. 



ners, was so far manifested to him, as to give him 
hope for himself, and reconciliation to the divine will. 
I indulge, it is true, a broader hope ; but it rejoices me 
to have any of my fellow creatures feel an assurance 
of our heavenly Father's love, through any means. 
Yes ; my brother, I doubt not, is now rejoicing in hea- 
ven, chanting the praises of that Redeemer, who was 
the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but 
for the sins of the whole world. O what a blessing in 
the hour of affliction is faith in a Savior ! Without 
the light of the Gospel what a region of darkness, what 
a shadow of death is this world ! We, my mother, are 
now left alone, as it were, in the world. God only 
knows how long our lives will be spared ; but at far- 
thest, we shall soon follow our beloved Francis, as I 
trust, to the kingdom of unfading glory. Let us not 
then be cast down by the chastising rod. Let us re- 
member that it is our heavenly Father that inflicts it. 
Let us strive to improve our hearts and our lives, to 
love God more, and to benefit his creatures around us 
by an increasing faithfulness in discharging the duties 
of life. It is the sentiment of Christianity as well as 
of Philosophy that "whatever is, is right." ' 

The following letter, written about a year after the 
date of the preceding, is interesting as presenting his 



MEMOIR. 



25 



views at the time on some important doctrinal points ; 
and not less so from its exhibition of a Christian spirit 
toward that church from which he conceived himself 
to have sustained very harsh and unjustifiable treat- 
ment. 

< Richmond, Jan. 12th, 1832. 

' Dear mother, — I have just received, and perused 
with interest, your well filled sheet. I have but one 
fault to find with it, and that is indeed one altogether too 
frequent in your letters — an apology for your faithful- 
ness. You know I am capable of taking nothing un- 
kindly that bears all the marks of having come fresh 
from a mother's love. Even if I esteem some of your 
sentiments erroneous, and some of your fears ground- 
less, I know how duly to appreciate the motive that 
inspires their expression, and imparts to them a frank, 
undisguised coloring. There, — I am just dropping a 
tear over the thought I have inscribed. 

' Your remarks upon Unitarianism, I think, are un- 
just. You are not acquainted with that class of Chris- 
tians, whose very name is such a thing of dread to you. 
I am a Unitarian, and at the same time that I declare 
this, I feel assured, could you and Mr B — * and I, 
have an opportunity of conversing at length on the 
Trinitarian question, we should all discover, that no 

* The minister of the church in Great Barrington. 



26 



MEMOIR. 



such wide breach of opinion exists between us, as has 
been pictured to your imagination. The truth is. 
Christians are denouncing each other, on ridiculously 
trifling matters. I do not pretend to determine the 
precise nature of Christ. He is neither to be exalted 
nor degraded by a mere title or name. His mediato- 
rial character and offices are what we are chiefly to be 
concerned about. I believe in his preexistence, and 
in the transcendant glory, and vast power, with which 
the Father has endowed him ; and at the same time, I 
feel bound to believe his testimony, when he so often 
declares his entire dependence for all he is, or has, on 
die Father, and when his express language is " The 
Father is greater than I." But why should we wrangle 
in regard to his definite nature, so long as he assures 
us, that " no man knoweth the Son, but the Father " ? 
Here let us rest the matter, and hush the tumult of 
sectarian dissensions, about things of which we can 
know nothing ; and let us devote our attention to those 
things, which do come plainly within the grasp of our 
knowledge and comprehension. Let us diligently 
study the Gospel, and strive to imbibe the spirit, and 
copy the example of our precious Savior. Let us do 
these things, and we need have no fears of being con- 
demned for following the honest dictates of our under- 
standings. I trust you will not believe, my dear mother, 



MEMOIR. 27 

that it is in the commonplace cant of religious profes- 
sions, that I say, Christ is every thing to me, "my light, 
my guide, my all." If we would read our bibles enough, 
and pray enough, we should be just as good Christians 
as we need to be. I do not wish to alter your faith in 
regard to Christian doctrine. Harsh doctrines may be 
so counterbalanced in the mind by other consoling 
ones, as to leave their advocates much ground for en- 
joyment. I would only say therefore, "As ye have re- 
ceived Christ, so walk ye in him." But I could wish 
that your mind might so far break away from the nar- 
row walls of a particular sect or system, as to look with 
a more charitable eye on other denominations. There 
are very bad people, and at the same time, most excel- 
lent, devout professors, in all Christian orders. As to the 

observations of Mrs , on her practical experience 

of Universalism, I do not doubt she spoke as an honest 
woman. Much depends on the kind of preaching she 
heard, and the description of authors she read. I do not 
know that you are aware of the existence of two sep- 
arate denominations of believers in universal salvation. 
The members of the one, we call Ultra-Universalists ; 
those of the other are denominated Universal Restora- 
tionists. The former deny punishment beyond this 
life ; and though there are honorable exceptions, too 
many of their preachers, and too many of their books, 



28 



MEMOIR. 



inculcate various sentiments which Restorationists look 
upon with deep disgust. There is a very broad dis- 
tinction betwixt these two orders ; and [ now request 
you never to speak of me as a UniversaJist, but as a 
Restorationist, or what indeed I prefer, Unitarian. 
In Winchester's Dialogues, which I have sent by Mr 

, you will find, in the main, my own opinions and 

those of Restorationists generally. Winchester is gen- 
erally admitted to have been a true Christian, even 
by his opposers. You will do me the favor to read 
this little work attentively, not that I expect or wish 
you to avow or embrace the peculiar sentiments of the 
author, but that you may see how misapprehended 
those sentiments are, and how little difference, after all, 
there is betwixt your views of religion, and those of 
your affectionate son, J. B. P. 

6 P. S. — I am heartily rejoiced to learn that your 
church does not countenance the ambitious projects of 
the high Presbyterians. Much of the asperity of my 
former remarks has arisen from the contrary supposi- 
tion. Let the scheme of a " union of church and 
state," never pollute that church, and under a sense of 
all my wrongs, I will love and respect it still. Give my 
most cordial respects to Mr B — , and tell him I should 
be happy to receive a letter from one, though superfi- 
cially, and under unpropitious circumstances, acquaint- 



MEMOIR. 



29 



ed with me, yet for whom the representations of an 
endeared mother have won special esteem. 

' I have said that I do not wish you to alter your 
faith as to Christian doctrine. I have not said this be- 
cause I deem my peculiar views unimportant. If I 
thought so, I should not struggle against so much op- 
position to promulgate them. But at your time of 
life, opinions long cherished, have in general become so 
fixed in the mind, so interwoven with all the associa- 
tions of thought and feeling, that it costs more to root 
them out, than it comes to ; that is, provided they are 
not of a very malignant class of errors. And I feel 
that though you are impressed with some false views, 
yet you entertain the substantiate of true Christianity. 
And if you should ever see cause to change some of 
your opinions, be very careful how you court the dis- 
esteem and persecution of your weaker brethren, 
through the avowal of the alteration. Church bigotry 
is more cruel than the grave ; and you, in your advanc- 
ed years and declining health, are not called upon to 
face its storms. Besides, I should be very sorry to see 
unnecessary dissensions spring up in a church, where 
unanimity and even a tolerable share of light, had pre- 
vailed. The case is altogether different with me. I 
am a young man, and have courage, and the general 
requisites of moral power, to brave the fury of sectarian 
3 



30 



MEMOIR. 



malevolence. I know that many branches of the 
Christian church are grossly corrupt ; and it is my du- 
ty to add my little mite of aid in the work of reforma- 
tion. I see many false views among my own support- 
ers, as well as in other denominations ; and I am able to 
exert a far more efficient energy in penetrating their 
minds, and bringing them to Christian truth, feeling, 
and practice, than the minister of any other order. I 
have witnessed some of the most striking conversions 
from infidelity through the instrumentality of my la- 
bors. Clear away a little rubbish with which tradi- 
tion has encumbered the Gospel, and the strongest 
weapons of the infidel are blunted, his shield of error 
wrested from him, and his breast laid open to the 
sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Our 
Savior gives a rule, by which our faith may be suc- 
cessfully tested ; ' If any man will do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine whether it be of God,' that is, 
the practical effects, which we discover our faith is pro- 
ducing in us, will test its purity. — You must recollect 
that Restorationists believe in the necessity of faith, re- 
pentance, the work of the spirit, and the whole process 
of regeneration, just as fully as you do. No order can 
help some of its preachers and members from carrying 
things to extremes, either to hurtful fanaticism and 
bigotry, or on the other hand, to cold indifference to 
what constitutes the life and soul of true religion. 9 



MEMOIR. 



In February, 1833, Mr Pitkin was ordained as Pa - 
tor of the church in Richmond by the Rev. Mr Whit- 
man of the Unitarian, and the Rev. Mr Skinner of the 
Universalist, connection. The name of his church had 
before this been changed, in accordance with his views, 
to the more appropriate, because less sectarian desig- 
nation, of 1 The Independent Christian Church.' Mr 
Pitkin thought, (with, we trust, many others) that in- 
dividuals might properly assume for themselves, names 
descriptive of their peculiar opinions, but that they 
ought not to designate the Churches of Christ by these 
sectarian appellations. 

In the summer following his ordination, Mr Pitkin 
visited Barrington, after an absence of nine years. On 
the third day from his arrival, he received a letter from 
the Pastor of the Congregational church, informing him 
that he was excommunicated. There is generally at 
the present day, among clergymen of the most different 
sentiments, a courtesy which self-respect dictates, no 
less than christian charity, and which might have sug- 
gested to the Pastor of the church in Barrington, that 
Mr Pitkin, now an ordained minister, was no longer a 
fit subject for the exercise of his authority. Mr Pit- 
kin made no answer to the letter, and took no notice of 
it, beyond his own family circle. He was received by 
some of his fellow-townsmen with great kindness, and 



32 



MEMOIR. 



was invited to address them from the pulpit of the 
Episcopalian church. He consented, remarking to his 
mother that he should have hesitated to do so if the 
minister of the Congregational church had treated him 
with courtesy ; but that he felt himself now released 
from all restraint on his account. His discourse how- 
ever, was of a practical character, nor did he exert him- 
self to make converts to his opinions in his native vil- 
lage. His moderation however, was not appreciated. 
Shortly after he had left Barrington, the clergyman of 
the Congregational church discoursed from the text, 
Proverbs xxix. 1,'He that, being often reproved, har- 
deneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that 
without remedy. ' The sermon was regarded by ma- 
ny who heard it, as aimed directly at Mr Pitkin ; and 
contained expressions deeply wounding to the feelings 
of his friends. 

Mr Pitkin's health had been for some time in a fee- 
ble state, and as early as 1831, he had entertained 
thoughts of seeking a climate warmer than that of Rich- 
mond. In the autumn of 1834, .he wrote to the Uni- 
tarian clergymen at Charleston and Augusta, for infor- 
mation respecting the climate, and the probability of 
finding employment, should his health permit him to 
preach. From both he received letters, encouraging 
his contemplated journey ; and from the Rev. Mr Gil- 



MEMOIR. 



33 



man of Charleston, a kind invitation to his house. It 
was not however, till the twentieth of January, 1835, 
that he arrived in Charleston after having endured 
some of the coldest weather of a remarkably cold win- 
ter. Mr Gilman was absent at the time, and his pul- 
pit was filled by the author of this memoir ; but Mr 
Pitkin was immediately welcomed, and every attention 
paid which his shattered health required, by the lady 
of his absent friend, and the members of her family cir- 
cle. It was however but too obvious that human aid 
could be of little avail. It had been Mr Pitkin's in- 
tention to sail from Charleston to the south of Europe, 
or to Madeira ; but no opportunity presenting itself of 
a suitable description, he left Charleston on the twen- 
ty-fourth of January for St. Augustine, E. F. The 
vessel in which he sailed had an unpleasant voyage. 
He reached his destination about the last of January ; 
and on the ninth of the following month closed in that 
city, his earthly course. 

While in Charleston, Mr Pitkin became more fully 
aware than he had previously been, of the approach of 
death; and he exhibited the calmness of a Christian, 
whose thoughts have too long been familiar with that 
great change, to be alarmed when it draws near. 
The writer of this notice was frequently with him at 

that time. On one occasion, when he had been con- 
3# 



34 



MEMOIR. 



suiting to what port he should sail, Mr Pitkin observed 
that it was of little consequence ; that his lot was al- 
ready cast. Some topics of encouragement being sug- 
gested, he answered, ' I am not depressed. I think the 
continuance of my life very doubtful, — more than 
doubtful, but this does not depress me. I should like 
indeed, if it were God's will, to live a little longer, and 
preach Unitarianism, but I feel prepared for either 
event.' He then spoke of the value of his sentiments 
to him, and his earnest wish for their diffusion. The 
inquiry was made, whether he found that those sen- 
timents sustained him in the prospect of death. 
c Yes,' he said, c they have supported me hitherto, 
and I have no doubt my death will be triumph- 
ant.' Among his directions to the writer at this time, 
was one which he cannot forbear to fulfill, though in so 
doing he may weaken that tie which connected Mr 
Pitkin with some of his brethren, who were undoubt- 
edly worthy of his cordial regard. Mr Pitkin re- 
quested that it might be distinctly made known, that his 
views of the future state differed from those of the 
Universalist connection, even from the doctrine held 
by Restorationists. It was his conviction that the hu- 
man mind, created free to choose between good and 
evil, would retain that freedom hereafter ; — that as 
some resist all means of good here, so in the future 



MEMOIR. 



35 



state some will resist all the means employed by di- 
vine love and justice for their correction and restoration 
to happiness, and continue obstinately impenitent. 
Such depraved spirits must at length become so miser- 
able, that annihilation will be mercy to them : and in 
mercy, he believed, God will blot them out of exis- 
tence. This final destruction of the hopelessly impen- 
itent, he regarded as indicated in Scripture under the 
name of the ''second death.' With the exception of 
those thus annihilated, he believed that the human 
race would at length be restored to purity, and raised 
to everlasting glory. Upon a friend's remarking, that 
he had been led to similar conclusions, but entertained 
them merely as an allowable speculation on a subject 
not clearly revealed, he observed that he viewed the 
subject much more confidently, and appealed particular- 
ly to the expressions in Revelations xx. xxi. in relation 
to the second death. He spoke of the great moral in- 
fluence which the preaching of this doctrine must 
have ; and said that he regarded it as more likely to 
be effectual for the reformation of offenders than any 
other conception of the future state which has ever 
been presented. 

In the inquiries into which we have been led in con- 
sequence of the above statement of Mr Pitkin, we have 
been enabled to trace in some degree the growth of 



36 



MEMOIR. 



this opinion in his mind. A venerable member of 
his society in Richmond, recalls the conversation in 
which an idea of this description was expressed by him- 
self, and commented on by Mr Pitkin as something new 
to him. His friends in Barrington mention that once 
while among them in 1833, he spoke of the annihilation 
of the utterly and hopelessly impenitent, as something 
within the range of speculation ; but it is not remem- 
bered that he had ever expressed a full belief in this 
doctrine in his sermons or otherwise. His opinion on 
this subject was therefore, evidently one of gradual for- 
mation, and on which he had only recently arrived at 
full conviction. To one who regards this belief as sub- 
stantially correct, it constitutes an important step in 
the advancement of Mr Pitkin's mind nearer to that 
perfect light which he now enjoys ; — and the great 
majority, who will still differ from him, may recognise 
in this modification of his sentiments, the operation of 
an inquiring and independent mind. 

During his short stay in Charleston, Mr Pitkin re- 
ceived many kind attentions from individuals on whom 
he had no claim but those of a fellow man and a suf- 
ferer. One gentleman, himself a stranger, who had 
visited the south for scientific purposes, equalled the 
hospitable citizens of Charleston in his exertions. 
The invalid showed himself deeply sensible of every 



MEMOIR. 



37 



kindness. In St. Augustine too, he found friends in 
strangers, at a time when their assistance was more 
than ever necessary to him, from his own feeble condi- 
tion, and from the number of sick, and the consequent 
difficulty of procuring good accommodations. He was 
furnished by his Charleston friends with letters to an 
eminent physician, who bestowed on him unwearied 
and gratuitous attention, and to a gentleman of Boston 
who passed the winter in St. Augustine with his fam- 
ily. No kindness could exceed that shown by this es- 
timable family to the dying man. We trust we shall 
be pardoned by them for inserting the following ex- 
tracts of a letter from Mrs F — to the mother of the 
deceased. 

4 Near the last of January, Dr P — presented us 
with a letter, introducing your son to our kindly atten- 
tions. Mr F — called on him with the Doctor, — in- 
vited him to come and see us, and tried to cheer him 
up. Finding that he did not come, I went with Mr 
F — , a day or two afterwards, to visit him myself and 
see if I could do any thing for his comfort.' 6 He told 
me that there was a lady from Philadelphia boarding 
there, Mrs B — , who was the guardian angel of the 
house.' c l asked him if it fatigued him to talk; he 
said, No ; it gave him pleasure to have somebody to 
talk with.' 1 He spoke of the Unitarian persuasion 



3S 



MEMOIR. 



with great enthusiasm, and in discourse of it. his brow 
and eyes lit up with smiles, and the sweetest expression 
I ever saw. The next day the cold weather set in 
with great severity, and continued for several days. 
On Monday the ninth of February, Dr P — called 
and requested Mr F — to go with him to see Mr Pit- 
kin, who he thought could not live over twenty-four 
hours. He requested Mr F — to inform him of the 
near approach of his speedy dissolution. It was a 
painful task, but they deemed it a sacred duty, as he 
might have arrangements to make or directions to give, 
that might be of serious importance to those he loved. 
As they spoke their fears lie slightly changed color, 
but bore the information with great calmness and com- 
posure/ 1 He consented to have a nurse. The Doc- 
tor and Mr F — w 7 ent immediately out to seek for one. 
After being gone half an hour without any success, 
Mr F — requested rae to go over and stay with him 
until they returned, as he was afraid that he might die 
alone before they should be able to procure a nurse.' 
* I told him, I had come to stay with him, to take care 
of him. He looked at me a moment, — pronounced 
my name, — they were the last words he ever spoke. 
He took no further notice of anything. I sent for Mrs 
B — . She and I remained with him about two hours, 
when he expired, just as the Doctor and Mr F — ar- 



MEMOIR. 



39 



rived with the nurse. He was buried the next day, 
all the strangers attending his funeral.' £ I have rea- 
son to think he retained his senses unto the last, and 
that whenever he was able, his spirit was in fervent 
prayer. Never did I feel more pity for any human 
being. To see him alone, helpless, stretched upon 
the bed of death, far from the kindly sympathy of his 
people, his kindred and his home, indebted to the com- 
passion of strangers for those attentions which the 
heart of a tender parent so fondly bestows ! He ap- 
peared to be very patient, and perfectly resigned. I 
never understood that he breathed a murmur, or made 
the slightest complaint, — but clasping his hands upon 
his breast, yielded up his soul to Him who gave it, and 
expired without a sigh. The Lord gave, and the 
Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
Lord!' 

Thus then died John B. Pitkin, — too early, it may 
seem to us, for the cause in which he had engaged, — 
too early, it may seem to us, for that reputation which 
would have attended his talents and exertions; but 
not too early for the lesson he has left, of the rescuing, 
purifying and ennobling power of Liberal Christianity. 
To that system he owed much, and his labors in its 
advancement were in proportion. They were not con- 
fined to his own church in Richmond. He had col- 



40 



MEMOIR. 



lected a congregation in Powhatan, Virginia, and had 
preached occasionally in other parts of that state. He 
had also afforded valuable aid to the Rev. Mr Skinner 
of Baltimore, in the religious paper edited by that gen- 
tleman. Besides his miscellaneous productions in 
prose and verse, which appeared in that and other 
papers, he had published some occasional discourses, 
two of which — on the Fourth of July, and on True 
and False Religion, — are reprinted in the present vol- 
ume. But the most important of his publications is 
the Discourse in answer to the Rev. Daniel Baker, an 
essay of the most able kind, on the Doctrine of the 
Two Natures in Christ. The great length of this 
production has necessarily excluded it from the present 
volume. 

Mr Pitkin confided to the writer of this memoir the 
care of his manuscripts ; and it was the wish of his 
surviving parent and other friends, that a selection from 
them should be given to the public. The task thus 
imposed was by no means an easy one ; and on a re- 
cent journey to the north, the writer visited Barring- 
ton with the full intention of relieving himself from a 
charge which would necessarily make heavy demands 
upon his leisure. But he found the mother of the 
deceased at that very moment undergoing a formal 
trial before an ecclesiastical court on charges of heresy, 



MEMOIR. 



41 



slander, and breach of covenant vows. The grounds 
of accusation were, that she had sympathised with her 
son, — had complained of the treatment he had receiv- 
ed, — and had ceased to worship in the church from 
whose pulpit she had heard him publicly anathema- 
tized. The writer discovered that the early history of 
the deceased was called up again from the repose of 
years. He could not, under such circumstances, de- 
cline to plead the cause of the dead, and to do what 
lay in his power, to soothe the wounded feelings of the 
living. 

In the selection and preparation of the following 
sermons, he has encountered great difficulty from the 
loose state in which Mr Pitkin's papers were left, and 
which all the care previously bestowed on them by 
other friends, had but partially succeeded in remedying. 
He has taken without scruple that liberty which is ab- 
solutely necessary to be used under such circumstances, 
the liberty of omission ; and in a few instances, he has 
divided an unwieldly sentence, or reconstructed an un- 
grammatical one. Allusions to those doctrines with 
respect to which the sentiments of Mr Pitkin had 
changed before his death, have been generally omitted. 
One powerful sermon on Universal Salvation has been 
inserted, however, as a specimen of his preaching on 
that subject. 

A 



42 



MEMOIR. 



The writer was assured by a lady in Richmond, of 
different sentiments from Mr Pitkin, and personally a 
stranger to him, that the intelligence of his death was re- 
ceived with sorrow by many who differed from him most 
widely in opinion, — that he lived there universally re- 
spected, and died universally regretted. A similar tes- 
timony was borne to his worth in letters to his bereaved 
mother, from many of those who had known and loved 
him, both of his own, and of other religious sentiments. 
1 Deeply / writes one of his parishioners, i oh how deep- 
ly we deplore his loss, both as a friend and as a Pastor. 
Long will his memory be cherished in this city, by all 
who knew him. May we all aim to be good like him, 
that our end may be like his, peaceful and happy.' 
Nor were these tributes of affection and sympathy con- 
fined to Richmond. A number of gentlemen who had 
attended his ministry in Powhatan, united in a similar 
expression of their deep regard for their late friend, 
and in condolence with his afflicted relative. We 
close this memoir by the insertion of the following lines, 
which appeared soon after his decease, in one of the 
papers of Richmond, and which, beside their intrinsic 
beauty, are valuable as the testimony of one whose 
views of religion differed from his own. 



MEMOIR. 



LINES, ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. J. B. PITKIN, 
BY AN OKTHODOX FRIEND. 

He has fallen in youth like a frost-smitten flower, 
And low in the grave they have laid him ; 

And the pitying bird from her amaranth bower, 
A sweet, soft requiem hath play'd him. 

No loved mother was near to pillow his head 

On the breast where first he slumbered ; 
And no sister's warm tear o'er the couch was shed 

Of him whose hours were numbered. 

But faces unknown are now pressing around 

The couch of the young, the dying ; 
Ah ! and soon o'er the stranger's grassy mound, 

Will the soft south winds be sighing. 

They have buried him far from the place of his birth, 

And stranger eyes are now weeping 
O'er the newly raised mound of fresh green earth, 

Where the smitten one is sleeping. 

No more, no more shall his blue waters weave 

Their songs in his ear, or the beauty 
Of his own green hills on a calm summer's eve, 

Wake his smile, affection's duty. 

For he slumbers afar in a sunnier clime, 

Where flowers are ever blowing, 
Where the luscious blue grape and the yellow lime 

Their mingled fragrance are throwing. 

But his spirit rests in a far better land, 

In pavilions of light above, 
'Mongst the gifted ones of that holy band 

Who have tasted that c God is Love.' 



SERMON I. 



CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 

1 Cor. i. 23, 24. ' But we preach Christ crucified, unto the 
Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks, foolishness. But 
unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the 
power of God and the wisdom of God.' 

These words were addressed by the Apostle to his 
Christian brethren residing in the city of Corinth. 
That city, we are informed by history, was a place of 
great commercial enterprise and prosperity, renowned 
for its wealth and luxury, and unfortunately no less no- 
ted for the extreme licentiousness of its manners. It 
abounded in libraries, schools, and sophists, and was 
distinguished for the effeminacy of its literature. From 
the epistles of St Paul as well as from other sources, 
we learn that the Christian church planted there, be- 
came early infected with the moral dissoluteness by 
which it was surrounded. Jealousies, animosities, 
strifes and divisions sprung up among its members ; the 
4# 



46 



SERMON I. 



spirit of party was engendered, and began to grow in- 
to great virulence and rancor. Gross immoralities 
were tolerated, so that even the sacred festival of the 
Lord's Supper was not unfrequently signalized by 
drunkenness and other most debauching excess. It 
was with deep sorrow that Paul learned this growing 
degeneracy of his brethren, and to expose and correct 
the wickedness of this state of things among them, ap- 
pears to be the prominent design of the first epistle to 
the Corinthians. The chapter containing my text 
opens with the customary salutations, and then the au- 
thor goes onto impress it upon his brethren, that in the 
Christian religion they all have but one master, Christ ; 
and that it was entirely repugnant to the spirit of Chris- 
tianity for its disciples to split into parties and to follow 
different teachers, as it was customary for the heathen 
to do in their schools of philosophy. He says, ' Now, 
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Je- 
sus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that 
there be no divisions among you ; but that ye be per- 
fectly joined together in the same mind, and in the 
same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me, 
of you my brethren, by them which are of the house 
of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now 
this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, 
and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is 
Christ divided ? was Paul crucified for you ? or, were 
ye baptized in the name of Paul ?' Thus this great 
Apostle goes on to reason with, and reprove his erring 
brethren, in the truly Christian temper and spirit. 



SERMON I. 



47 



How firm, plain, and earnest is his manner, yet how 
kind and affectionate. We discover no arrogance, no 
bitterness, no sneer, no denunciation. We see nothing 
but a manifestation of Christian love and tenderness for 
his deluded and wandering converts. Yet if ever a 
preacher of the gospel had reason to be angry at the 
waywardness of his flock, or a right to denounce them, 
St Paul had in the instance before us. He had toiled 
and labored for the conversion of his countrymen, and 
of the Greeks. He had been wearied with journeying, 
and exposed to manifold perils on their account, he had 
fronted reproach, and even braved death itself to save 
them ; and what a wretched return they had made ! 
They despised his plainness of speech ; they quarrelled 
and disputed among themselves ; they formed parties 
and had their leaders ; they abused a holy ordinance ; 
they were caught by the glare of affected eloquence 
and subtle sophistry ; — in a word, the Apostle's hopes 
had been disappointed, and his earnest labors unsuccess- 
ful. His converts showed gross ingratitude, and scorn- 
ed and insulted him. Here was enough to move his 
indignation, to call forth any rebuke, to make him deal 
in terrors and threaten punishment. But is there any- 
thing of this visible ? No, not a word. He admonishes 
and exhorts, — he beseeches and prays, — he calls them 
his brethren as:ain and asfain. He thanks God for the 
measure of grace bestowed upon them, — he prays that 
peace from the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ may 
be unto them. He is grieved but not angry ; plain 
but not harsh; full of warning but free from threats. 



4S 



SERMON I. 



He points out their errors, he speaks of their sins, but 
he does not call down wrath and vengeance upon them ; 
— he does not talk of exclusion and excommunication ; 
he does not assert the prerogative of God, and sit in 
final judgment upon these despisers of the cross, and 
condemn them to endless perdition. But with the love, 
prudence, and zeal of an affectionate pastor, he endeav- 
ors to call the wandering flock home again to the fold 
of Jesus. 

Here in this conduct of Paul, my hearers, is a les- 
son for us ; — here is a rebuke for us, when, frail and 
fallible as we are, we denounce and cast off those, 
whose consciences and honest study of scripture compel 
them to reject our opinions. Here is a reproach for 
us, when we deal harshly with the weaknesses and fol- 
lies of our fellowmen, and especially when we presume 
boldly to anticipate the decisions of the last day, when 
we dare to predict the issue of any brother's trial at the 
bar of God, and this too, for mere opinion. Let us 
imitate then the example of Paul and of his blessed 
Master, Jesus, in avoiding intolerance, and exclusive- 
ness. Let us seek, enforce, and defend the truth, but 
always with love and good will ; and leave the issues of 
life and death with God, who knows the heart, who is 
perfectly acquainted with all the peculiar motives which 
influence, and circumstances which surround each indi- 
vidual, who sees the causes of error, and who has made 
man accountable to Himself alone. To these ends may 
He who is wisdom, guide us to the truth, that the truth 
may sanctify and make us free. 



SERMON I. 



49 



In further discoursing from my text, it will be my 
object, first, to exhibit what is implied by preaching 
Christ Crucified ; secondly, to show why Christ the 
crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews, and fool- 
ishness to the Greeks, and how to believers he is the 
power of God and the wisdom of God ; and thirdly, to 
ascertain who are now preachers of Christ Crucified. 
You perceive that the subject is a broad and an im- 
portant one. May I discuss it with a full sense of my 
responsibility, and may you give it that attention, pa- 
tience, and seriousness, which become immortal and 
accountable beings. 

"What then is implied by preaching Christ Crucified? 
or as it might be rendered Christ the Crucified. To 
preach Christ is to preach the religion he has establish- 
ed. The name of an author was commonly used among 
the ancient Jews, as indeed it is among us, to express 
the teaching he inculcated. Thus, 1 Moses/ it is de- 
clared, was c read in the synagogue every sabbath day,' 
that is, the law of Moses was so read ; so we say of a 
student, ' He is thoroughly acquainted with Black- 
stone,' meaning not that he is acquainted with the per- 
son of that author, but with the commentaries which 
he wrote. To preach Christ, then, is to preach the 
gospel. Paul uses these phrases as synonymous. Thus 
he says, ' Christ sent me to preach the gospel,' and, 
' but we preach Christ crucified.' These terms are 
evidently employed to express one and the same thing. 
Therefore to answer our present inquiry, we have only 
tc ascertain what is the preaching of the gospel. The 



50 



SERMON I, 



literal meaning of the word translated gospel, is good 
news and glad tidings. It was applied not merely to 
any one single doctrine, but to the whole revelation of 
Jesus, inasmuch as that revelation was to be the means 
of man's salvation from ignorance, error, sin and con- 
sequent misery ; and therefore was to men glad tidings 
of great joy. Whatever, then, Christ and his apostles 
taught by Divine direction, composes the gospel. To 
notice all they taught would require a volume, but we 
may easily review such a portion of their instructions, 
as will satisfy us what was the general tenor of their 
preaching. We are told, Matth. iv. 23, that Jesus 
went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, 
and what Jesus taught and preached is the teaching and 
preaching of the gospel. In Matth. vi. we are furnish- 
ed with a pretty full report of one of the Savior's most 
important sermons, — the sermon on the mount. What 
doctrines and what truths are therein inculcated ? To 
recapitulate some of the topics, Jesus insists upon pu- 
rity of heart, — humility of spirit, — meekness, — mercy, 
— forgiveness of injuries, — chastity even in thought, — 
abstinence from profanity, — love of enemies, — unosten- 
tatious charity, — trust in Divine Providence, — caution 
in judging of others, — the vanity of loud professions, 
— and the necessity of holy conduct. These are his 
topics, when he blesses the pure in heart, promises the 
kingdom to the poor in spirit, gives his benediction to 
the merciful, exhorts men to let their light so shine 
that others may see their good works, and God be glo- 
rified,— -bids them leave the gift before the altar and go 



SERMON I, 51 

and be reconciled to their brother, — says to them, 'swear 
not at all/ urges them to do good to those who hate 
and persecute them, — enjoins them not to give alms 
before men, to pray in secret, to fast inwardly, to lay 
up treasures in heaven, — to consider the lilies of the 
field, to judge not that they may not be judged; — in one 
word to seek first the kingdom of God, and his righte- 
ousness, and to be perfect as the Father in heaven is 
perfect. These were the truths of his religion, the pre- 
cepts of Christianity, which he delivered to the multi- 
tude from the mount. This was his first sermon, in 
Galilee, and is to be regarded as an introduction to the 
whole course of his public teaching, as embodying a 
luminous summary of the whole Gospel. In this dis- 
course he first appeared as a public teacher. It con- 
tains his earliest proclamation of the terms of salvation. 
Now does he utter a syllable about man's inability to 
serve God or to do a holy act ? Does he say a word 
about natural depravity, and orignal sin ? Does he re- 
fer most distantly to the popular doctrine of the atone- 
ment ? No, he does not. He appeals to men as free 
and able to repent and reform. He bids them strive, 
and hunger and thirst after righteousness. He leaves 
the hope of salvation upon no mysterious influence of 
his sufferings, but upon the possession of right princi- 
ples, right affections and right conduct. Such was the 
preaching of the gospel, such the doctrine as it came 
from his lips, which unto them that receive it is the 
power of God, and the wisdom of God. 

We learn then from this discourse, not that to preach 



52 



SERMON I. 



unintelligible mysteries, but to preach plain morality, 
and piety, and providence, and prayer, is to preach the 
gospel. Again, we are informed in Matth. x. 7, that 
Jesus sent forth his twelve disciples, saying, c as ye go, 
preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 
What and where is this kingdom of heaven, or of God? 
1 The kingdom of God is within you,' ' for the kingdom 
of God is not meat or drink, but righteousness, peace, 
and joy, in a holy spirit.' ( Whosoever, therefore, shall 
break one of these least commandments, and shall teach 
men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of 
heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the 
same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 
In commanding his disciples then to preach that the 
kingdom of heaven was at hand, he in effect command- 
ed them to declare the establishment of the gospel dis- 
pensation as consisting of moral goodness. In his last 
conversation with his disciples you find our Lord insist- 
ing chiefly upon goodness of heart and life, upon piety 
and morality, upon love and obedience. ' If ye love me, 
keep my commandments.' ' These things I command 
you, that ye love one another. Herein is my Father 
glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be my 
disciples.' Here again we see that Christian preaching 
is the preaching of good works, is the inculcating of ho- 
liness of heart and life. But we need not continue this 
reference to particular passages. 

Take up your bibles and carefully review the teach- 
ing of Jesus, and you will find that all the essential 
truths contained in them may be summed up under 
the following articles. 



SERMON I. 



53 



1st, The spiritual nature and parental character of 
the Almighty. ' God is a spirit, and they that worship 
him must worship him in spirit and in truth.' 'When 
ye pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven.' 

2d, Love of God and love of man. i Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy 
neighbor as thyself.' 

3d, The necessity of obedience or goodness. ' Bless- 
ed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness, for they shall be filled.' 

4th, The immortality of the soul. c Whosoever be- 
lie veth in me shall never die.' 

5th, A state of righteous retributions. 'Then will 
he reward every man according to his works.' 

These are the main truths, the fundamentals of Chris- 
tianity, which are able to make us wise unto salvation. 

After the death of our Lord, we are provided with 
reports of several discourses from his apostles. 

In the second of Acts, we find Peter in his first ser- 
mon, alluding to the advent, instructions and crucifixion 
of Jesus, but saying not one word about the trinity, 
vicarious sufferings, endless misery, nor any such matter. 
His object seems to be to prove to the Jews that God 
had made that same Jesus whom they crucified, the true 
Messiah. He dealt in no mysteries, but simply exhort- 
ed his hearers, saying, ' Repent and be baptized every 
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remis- 
sion of sins.' Beneath this plain, intelligible and practi- 
cal sermon, three thousand were converted from Juda- 
ism to Christianity. 

5 



54 



SERMON I. 



We find Paul on Mars' Hill preaching God, as the 
Universal Father of man, preaching repentance, and 
the resurrection, and the judgment. But he drops not 
one word of the trinity, of a mysterious atonement, nor 
of the eternity of punishment. 

Once more, what sort of preaching was that which 
reached the heart of Felix and excited his fear. Paul 
1 reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment 
to come,' and ' Felix trembled.' 

So in the epistles, Paul exhorts his Roman brethren 
to ( prove what is that good and acceptable and per- 
fect will of God,' by not being conformed to this world, 
but rather by presenting their bodies i a living sacrifice,' 
and by leading lives of righteousness. 

To his Corinthian brethren he represents charity as 
above faith, hope, and all knowledge. 

To Timothy he declares, that ' the end of the com- 
mandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and a good 
conscience and faith unfeigned.' 

To Titus he says, : This is a faithful saying, and 
these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they 
which have believed in God might be careful to main- 
tain good works. These things are good and profit- 
able unto men.' Thus might I go on, and remind you 
of many similar passages. But this, I trust, is not nec- 
essary. You perceive from the practice of the Savior 
and of his apostles, what it is to preach the gospel, to 
preach Christ the crucified. It is to preach the whole 
Christian system, the entire theory and practice of 
true religion. 



SERMON I» 



55 



It is to preach the character of God as a Father, 
and the nature of man as an accountable and immortal 
being. It is to preach the Messiahship of Jesus. It 
is to preach his precepts, and his example. It is to 
preach the need of piety and prayer. It is to call 
men to repentance and reformation ; and to beseech 
them to abstain from vice, to cherish virtue and taseek 
the highest good. It is to point out the use of life and 
all its relations. 

It is to unfold the truth which Christ toiled and suf- 
fered and died to introduce into the world; to give 
that truth power over the heart and conscience, so as 
to render it effectual in saving men from sin and mis- 
ery. It is to quicken man's spiritual nature, to teach 
him his capacity and duty ; to make him regard him- 
self as a child of God, and an heir of everlasting life. 
It is to bring out things new and old, — to use all know- 
ledge and every argument, to exhort and entreat men 
to love and obey their Maker, to receive and follow 
their Savior. All this, and whatever else is in har- 
mony with this, is preaching the gospel ; is preaching 
Christ crucified. / 

We come, secondly, to inquire, how the preaching 
of Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling block 
and to the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which 
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of 
God and the wisdom of God. 

I feel it incumbent on me to exhibit this portion of 
my subject in as clear a light as my short limits will 
permit. For I anticipate the demand, if to preach 



56 



SERMON I. 



Christ ' Crucified/ is merely to hold forth such plain 
truths as those we have just enumerated, how was it a 
stumbling block to the Jews? and still more, how were 
such elevated sentiments foolishness to the philosophical 
Greeks ? Does it not seem from such lano;uaD;e that 
there were mysteries unintelligible to the carnal under- 
standing connected with the preaching of the cross? 
Was it not the doctrine of a mysterious trinity, of a 
mysterious atonement, of vicarious sufferings, that 
caused the Jews to stumble at, and the Greek to re- 
gard as foolishness, the preaching of the crucified Re- 
deemer ? These questions; so much insisted on by our 
orthodox brethren, may be, we believe, satisfactorily 
answered, and the whole language of my text made 
clear and intelligible, by having recourse to several 
well known and important facts. The Jews, it is cer- 
tain, expected that the promised Messiah would be a 
temporal Prince, and a mighty Conqueror ; that he 
would rescue their nation from its bondage to the Ro- 
mans, and plant in Judea the standard of a proud and 
permanent dominion. This impression was deeply 
fixed, and intertwined with all their views of the pre- 
dicted Christ. A knowledge of this fact furnishes us 
with a key to many passages in the New Testament. 

The minds of our Savior's immediate disciples 
clung to this erroneous expectation with w T onderful te- 
nacity. It is even thought by some commentators 
that lingering traits of it are discoverable in the epis- 
tles ; that ideas attached to the nature of Christ's first 
coming are there transferred to that second appearance 



SERMON I. 



57 



of the Savior, for which the apostles evidently looked. 
Notwithstanding Jesus so expressly assured his disci- 
ples, that his kingdom was not of this world, but with- 
in the soul, yet they seemed to cling with invincible 
prejudice to the hope fastened upon them in childhood, 
and thus firmly linked with all their strongest impres- 
sions, that the Messiah would yet come forth as the 
temporal king of the Jews, and deliver them from for- 
eign despotism, and establish them in unprecedented 
national triumph and political glory. 

This state of mind is exhibited in the conversation 
with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. They 
were astonished that Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet so 
mighty in deed and word, should have been condemned 
to death and crucified. ' But we trusted,' said they, 
' that it had been he who should have redeemed Is- 
rael.' They were sadly disappointed. With the death 
of their master, their fondest hopes seemed to perish. 
Another evidence of this state of feeling occurs in Acts 
i., where his followers asked so anxiously, e Lord, wilt 
thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?' 
Here then is one important fact of the nature of the 
Jewish expectations concerning the promised Messiah, 
to account for the declaration in our text that the cru- 
cified Christ was to the Jews a stumbling block. The 
same fact has continued to be a stumbling block to the 
great mass of the same people from the apostles' time 
even to the present day. 

I will lay before you another fact, which I deem of 
no less importance. And that is the horror with which 

5* 



58 



SERMON I. 



the Jews were accustomed to regard crucifixion. This 
was not originally a Jewish, but a Roman mode of pun- 
ishment, and one by which they executed their slaves, 
and malefactors guilty of the vilest crimes. The Ro- 
mans upon their conquest of Judea introduced it among 
the Jews, in whose eyes it was far more ignominious than 
the death of the gallows is in our eyes. We at this 
day are unable to enter fully into the feelings of a Jew 
who stood on Calvary, and saw the being who claimed 
to be the long-expected Son of God, the Redeemer, 
the king, the hope and glory of Israel, permitting him- 
self to be nailed betwixt a couple of thieves to the 
cross ! With us, the cross is associated with all our 
most holy feelings and choicest hopes. The blood of 
him whom we have from infancy been taught to vene- 
rate above all Beings that ever appeared on our globe, 
has hallowed in our view the very name of the instru- 
ment upon which it was shed. Instead of looking up- 
on the death of the cross as ignominious, we should 
shudder at it as a profanation of what was most sacred, 
were it now proposed to make it the punishment of 
criminals. To us it appears that such a death would 
only be meet for the holiest saint. But such were not 
the common feelings of men when Paul addressed the 
Corinthians. The case was not so when he declared 
1 1 am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ' — It was 
not so, when he gloried in the cross. 

We, I repeat, are unable to conceive of the horror 
and the disgust which crucifixion excited in the mind of 
a Jew. Were we to substitute the gallows in the place 



SERMON I. 



59 



of the cross, — should we look upon crucifixion as we 
now look upon hanging, we might have some faint con- 
ception of his feelings ; but even then we should want 
his deep hatred of those foreign oppressors who intro- 
duced this dread punishment among his countrymen ; 
we should want all these to make our sympathetic hor- 
ror perfect. I dwell upon this point, for it seems to 
me of vast moment. All Christians confess that the 
Apostles lay great stress upon the death and blood of 
Christ. All agree that these are mentioned in the epis- 
tles, with remarkable frequency and emphasis. The 
great object is, to ascertain the reason of this. — Some 
think that this language teaches a mysterious doctrine, 
the belief of which is e the one thing needful ' to salva- 
tion. Some think that a mysterious influence went 
forth from the death and blood of Christ to appease an 
offended God, and thus open the only door of salvation. 
But I ask you, my candid hearers, whether the strong- 
est instance of this language is not explained by the 
considerations which I have just presented ? Put your- 
selves in an Apostle's place. See every expectation 
disappointed. Behold Him the theme of prophets, the 
worker of miracles, — behold Him who, it was every 
moment thought, would arise in his might, and gather 
his hosts, and go forth to battle, and to victory, behold 
Him nailed like the vilest felon, to the accursed tree, 
the sport of a rude soldiery, the object of bitter insult, 
— behold all this, and then say if it is surprising that it 
should make a deep impression upon the Apostle's 
soul, if it should be a strong and a prominent point in 



60 



SERMON I. 



his writings, introduced often, and introduced with em- 
phasis ? Can you wonder that he should choose the 
cross, and speak of the cross, as the emblem of Chris- 
tianity? Can you wonder that he should often associ- 
ate the manner of Christ's death with the mention of 
his name ? Can you be surprised that he spoke of him 
emphatically in our text, not only as the Christ, that is, 
the Messiah, but as the crucified Christ, as the crucified 
Messiah ? I think not. I think that he who, by the 
exercise of a strong imagination, by freeing himself from 
prejudice, enters into the Apostle's feelings, will need 
no other solution of his earnest and strong words. 

You perceive then, I trust, a satisfactory reason of 
an allusion to Christ's crucifixion in our text. The 
words preceding it are, ' For the Jews require a sign, ' 
alluding no doubt to the demand made of Jesus that he 
should give some visible manifestation from the heavens, 
—or else that he should give some particular sign which 
they supposed would indicate the true Messiah. — 'And 
the Greeks seek after wisdom,' alluding to their schools 
of philosophy, and their sophists. f But we preach 
Christ crucified, or the crucified Messiah, unto the 
Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolish- 
ness' — that is, we preach as the true Messiah him who 
died on the cross, which unto the Jews is a stumbling 
block, since it is repugnant to their strong prejudices, 
and previous notions about the Redeemer — unto the 
Greeks foolishness, because, accustomed as they are to 
seeing pomp, splendor and rank connected with relig- 
ion, to look for wisdom among their sages and in their 



SERMON I. 



61 



academies, the idea that the humble Jesus, belon^in^ 
to a despised race, should in his simplicity and igno- 
minious death, be a teacher of divine truth, expressly 
commissioned and sent by the Deity for that purpose, 
seemed to them a most ridiculous absurdity. c But 
unto them who are called,' converted to a belief in the 
gospel, 6 both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of 
God and the wisdom of God,' Christ, a manifestation 
of the power and wisdom of God. 

Let us now, for the sake of distinctness, take a brief 
review of what we have presented from the text. Di- 
visions it seems occurred in the churches which Paul 
had established in the city of Corinth. Looseness and 
licentiousness were becoming common. The artificial 
eloquence of the sophists was preferred to the simplic- 
ity of the gospel. The Apostle's authority was dimin- 
ished, and the truth in danger. St Paul becomes ac- 
quainted with all this, and addresses a serious and 
affectionate letter to his brethren, to recover them from 
their strifes, apostacy, and general moral degradation. 
He urges them to cease from disputes, and to become 
one in Christ. He tells them that quarrels are con- 
trary to the spirit of the gospel. He assures them 
that the wisdom of the world is not the wisdom of God. 
He states that however it may be a stumbling-block to 
the Jews, or foolishness to the Greeks, because the 
one expected a temporal prince, a royal deliverer, and 
the other found pleasure in sophistry and curious spec- 
ulation, and attached ideas of splendor and learning ta 
teachers of truth, still Christ, who was crucified like a 



62 SERMON I. 

malefactor, is the true Messiah, and his instructions, to 
those who look fairly at the evidence for the divinity 
of his mission, and listen with humility and docility to 
his words, are the power of God, and the wisdom of 
God. Such are the topics and such the arguments of 
the Apostle. His meaning is clear and simple. You 
have only to attend to the circumstances under which 
lie wrote, only to apply those principles of interpretation 
which are dictated by common sense, and all perplex- 
ing difficulty vanishes. There is no mysterious doc- 
trine couched beneath his phraseology. By the works, 
words and death of Christ, truth is communicated, and 
truth is confirmed ; he who believes this truth and gives 
it influence and power over his heart and life, will be 
redeemed from sin and saved from misery. 

Upon the closing topic proposed for this discourse, I 
have time to say but little, although it is one which in- 
vites much remark. 

Who now preach Christ crucified ? I answer not 
by pointing to any one religious sect, nor to any one 
class of individuals ; but I answer, all who study to 
unfold and spread incorrupt Christianity ; all who strive 
to reform sinners ; all who promote moral goodness, 
love, and charity ; all who lead men to that fountain 
of living water which Christ has opened ; — all who 
keep the human mind free and active, the human heart 
warm and holy ; all who acknowledge the right of pri- 
vate judgment ; who defend the truth as they under- 
stand it, but yet do not venture to denounce any broth- 



SERMON I. 



63 



er as a heretic, or consign him to everlasting perdition 
for his opinions. 

And where are these preachers to be found ? Only 
in the pulpit ? No, we are all preachers, my brethren ; 
it may be of truth and goodness, it may be of error 
and of vice. By our lives, our daily walk and conver- 
sation do we preach. The father and mother preach 
to their children, — friend preaches to friend, — every 
man who exerts a moral influence, and that is every 
man who breathes, preaches. O, let us see to it then 
that we preach truth, preach the gospel, preach Christ 
crucified. Let us see that no human creed, the work 
of men's hands, but rather the word of God, is our guide. 
Let us see that the cause of no religious party merely, 
but that the cause of humanity has our strength. Let 
us study and pray, watch and labor, that we may live 
and die apostles of the truth. Let us deal in no de- 
nunciations. But let us promote practical godliness ; 
that doing thus, we may at last exclaim with Paul, c I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge shall give me at that day.' 



64 



SERMON I. 



PRAYER. 



We thank thee, Heavenly Father, for the gift of thy 
son Jesus. We bless thee, that qualified and commis- 
sioned by thee, he has brought down to us from heav- 
en every instruction which is necessary to improve and 
comfort us here, and guide us thither. We bless thee, 
that he has rent the cloud that hung betwixt heaven 
and earth, and poured upon the eyes of men so much 
of the effulgence that illuminates thine everlasting 
throne ; and that thus he has translated the wandering 
sons of a benighted world from the regions of darkness 
into the kingdom of spiritual light. We bless thee, 
that, through thy appointed messenger, we are called 
upon to know thee the only true God, and to know 
thee as our Father who lovest us, providest for us, in- 
vitest us to reform from our errors and sins, and be- 
stowest upon us thine everlasting grace,when we forsake 
the path of the prodigal, and retrace our ways, and re- 
turn to our heavenly Father's house. We adore thee, 
that through Jesus we learn the way that conducts to 
thee, to thy pardoning mercy and to everlasting bliss. 
He has shown us the way, he has gone forth upon it 
before us, has impressed it with his venerable footsteps ; 
he has cut away incumbrances and made it clear and 
smooth for us. He has confirmed the truth of all that 



SERMON I. 



65 



he uttered by his stainless life, by the wonderful works 
which he did, by his meek and holy death, and by his 
wonderful resurrection, and by the subsequent fulfill- 
ment of his predictions. He has raised walls of evi- 
dence around the authority of his mission, and the truth 
of his religion, which no human sophistry can under- 
mine, and no human power can overthrow. We bless 
thee that he has thus sheltered his followers from every 
fear of deception. O may his doctrine be ever dear 
to us as divine truth. May it be our guide in life and 
our hope and consolation in death. Turn our eyes to 
the Savior's example, in whose mouth was no guile, 
whose life was unsullied by a single blot, who went 
about doing good, instructing the ignorant, reclaiming 
the erring, comforting the sorrowful, and relieving the 
wretched ; whose words were unadulterated truth and 
wisdom, and whose deeds were the expression of the 
most generous compassion, of the most exalted philan- 
thropy and the sublimest virtue. O God, what a splen- 
did pattern of the excellence to which our nature may 
and ought to attain, is thus presented to us in the ex- 
ample of thy Son ! O may we be faithful in our en- 
deavors at copying it, in being truly harmless and un- 
defiled like him, and thus by imitating his excellencies 
may we be fitted to follow him into his everlasting 
kingdom in the regions of unmixed perfection and im- 
perishable glory. In his name we present to thee all 
our petitions, and in accordance with his directions we 
address thee — 1 Our Father who art in heaven ; hal- 
lowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy wiU 

6 



66 



SERMON I. 



be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day 
our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we for- 
give our debtors. And lead us not into temptation ; 
but deliver us from evil : For thine is the kingdom, 
and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.' 



SERMON II. 



THE NEW YEAR. 

Eccles. Hi. 1. £ To every thing there is a season, and a time to 
every purpose under the heaven.' 

The uncertainty of life, the swiftness with which it 
pursues its journey, and the nearness of the goal to- 
wards which it tends, are subjects of frequent thought 
and trite remark among mankind. The rapid, con- 
stant, and varied course of the waters pursuing their 
passage to the ocean, is a fit emblem of the earthly 
career of man. Go to some retired valley among the 
hills, and you find the little fountain springing forth 
upon the surface of the earth, and launching forth into 
a current struggling with encumbrances which choke 
and agitate its young and feeble career. In that little 
spring, now sparkling in the sunbeam that has wandered 
through the shade that surrounds it, now sleeping in 
the silent dell, now agitated by some rising pebble, and 



68 



SERMON TI. 



struggling through some sedgy passage, is a fit repre- 
sentation of infancy. Next comes in all its dancing 
glee, the brook of laughing, joyous boyhood ; — then 
the broader stream of youth, now bright in the rays of 
the morning, winding through smooth and verdant land- 
scapes into the more sober scenes of middle life, where 
its course is checkered by every variety of soil and of 
season, sometimes indeed presenting a calm, unruffled 
surface, but oftener, swelling into fury against opposing 
rocks, or dashing headlong down fearful cataracts ; 
wailing in the tumult of the winds, and discolored with 
the uncomely earths that are forced from all quarters 
into its bosom. And finally in a course which you 
hardly know whether to call ocean or river, you find 
the emblem of extreme old age, — half life, half death, 
gradually losing itself in a measureless, and all-absorbing 
world of waters. Thus, in a few days, even the long- 
est life measures its uneven course, and is lost in the 
universe of the departed. In the passing new-year's 
day, my friends, we come by one of those regular me- 
morials, one of those mile-stones which are set up at 
stated distances to inform us how far we have travelled 
on our road to the grave. 

Let us pause a little to read the inscription, and by 
a train of judicious considerations upon it, perchance 
we may become more sober, more correct, more dili- 
gent and better guided travellers, for the remaining 
part of our journey. 

c To everything,' says the wise man, in our text, 
1 there is a season, and a time to every purpose under 



SERMON II. 



69 



the heaven.' Let us regard this first Sunday of the 
new-born year as a suitable season for reflection, for 
gratitude to our Creator, for virtuous resolutions, and 
for commencing a course of more careful living, and of 
more active beneficence. 

Standing as we are close by the tomb of another 
buried year, it becomes us as rational creatures not to 
lose ourselves so far in the gaieties of the season as to 
exclude from our thoughts those serious reflections, 
which the truths that surround us are fitted to awa- 
ken in our breasts. 

Let us consider for what purpose life was given us. 
Let us reflect whether we have made that use of our 
past lives, which it might have been expected that ra- 
tional and accountable and immortal beings would make 
of them. 

What has been the influence of our thoughts, words 
and deeds upon our own souls and upon the feelings 
and morals of others ? What has been the prevailing 
tendency of our secret meditations upon ourselves, and 
of our conversation and example upon those around 
us ? 

Let us begin with serious considerations of the du- 
ties which are connected with our respective stations 
in life. We are placed in this world, my respected 
hearers, to learn truth, duty and happiness. Our pre- 
sent state may be regarded as a school in which by va- 
rious methods the elementary principles of an immortal 
being are taught us, in which it is our appointment to 
learn the alphabet of heaven, the first rudiments of 
6* 



70 



SERMON II. 



eternal wisdom and virtue. All the dispensations of 
providence, our prosperity, our adversity, our trials, 
our comforts, our hopes, our fears, our joys, our sor- 
rows, our health, our sickness, our strength, our infirm- 
ities, our avocations of business, our enjoyments of 
pleasure, all in fine, that surrounds us, and all that hap* 
pens to us, are so many agents to bring our various 
faculties into exercise, to keep them from inaction, and 
gradually to advance them towards that perfection of 
which they are capable, and for which they are des- 
tined. The judicious instructor, in his most ingenious 
devices to excite the emulation of his pupils, and to 
invest their minds with knowledge, is but a faint im- 
itation of that great Teacher, whose school is a uni- 
verse of rational and immortal creatures. ( We are here 
to learn our obligations of love, of reverence and of 
gratitude towards God, the duties of purity of heart, 
and of moderation in regard to ourselves and of com- 
passion and equity towards our neighbor. If we were 
to make a right use of the various influences that are 
constantly acting upon us,we should make constant and 
rapid proficiency in that science which alone can fit us 
to become partakers of the employments and joys of 
the future world. . We are placed in this state of exis- 
tence not only to receive lessons in wisdom and good- 
ness, but to act upon them ; not only to study virtue 
in theory, but to be governed by it in practice. We 
have all of us duties, most imperious duties to perform. 
No one of us is so humble that he may not do much 
good, or on the contrary, that he may not be theocca- 



SERMON II. 



71 



sion of much harm. In every calling, in every grade 
of life, how many useful precepts may an individual 
instil in the minds of those around him, how many 
good ideas may he advance, how many things may 
he say that shall serve to check vice, and encour- 
age virtue, that shall lead his associates to be more 
conscientious, more prudent, more benevolent, more 
useful and more happy members of society. And how i 
many things may he do to lessen the. sum of human 
woe, to relieve distress, and to shed the radiance of a 
pure and a commanding example around him. By 
being temperate, correct, prudent, diligent and bene- 
ficent, how much influence will he not exert upon those 
around him to conform themselves to his feelings and 
habits. 

And on the other hand, what an amount of harm 
may a single individual do. How many loose princi- 
ples may he not scatter among his companions ; how 
many false ideas may he not circulate among those 
who will become the echoes of his baneful sentiments, 
diffusing them through a broader and yet broader class 
of, beings. And what a blighting energy may not his 
example exert upon those around him. How many 
things may he not say to dislodge and to weaken in 
the minds of his associates that grand pillar of secret 
virtue and public morals, a sense of responsibility to 
the Supreme Being. 

How many unchaste and unhallowed propensities 
may his discourse awaken. How many conscientious 
scruples may not a witty jest remove. What a disre- 



yfyL {s>& 



72 



SERMON II. 



gard for God, good men, and good things, may not one 
satirical remark occasion. And what barrier to licen- 
tiousness may not be thrown down, in the minds espe- 
cially of the young, by the loose conversation and im- 
moral conduct of one bad man, especially if he be pos- 
sessed of some shrewdness of observation, some bril- 
liancy of wit, some fascination of manner, and more 
especially if with all his vices he contrives to be suc- 
cessful in the world. Thus in every sphere of life 
each individual renders the world the better or the 
worse for his living in it. We can scarcely conceive 
of a neutral character in this respect. We can hardly 
imagine one whose conversation and life is entirely in- 
different in its influence on the general weal. 

Such being the important position each one of us. 
my headers, is appointed to occupy on the stage of so- 
ciety A it becomes us to use the present season as 
a fit time for reflection upon the manner in which we 
have hitherto conducted ourselves. It is meet that we 
should soberly scrutinize the plan we have followed, 
the principles by which we have been regulated, the 
motives by which we have been actuated, and the gen- 
eral bearing of our thoughts, words and deeds. I be- 
gin with our thoughts. It is impossible, I admit, to 
prevent frivolous, vain and impure ideas from occasion- 
ally obtruding themselves upon our minds ; but it is 
not impossible to avoid encouraging, indulging and 
cherishing them. It is no crime to have a wrong 
thought come up before us, for we cannot help it ; but 
it is a crime to harbor and foster it, for that we can 



SERMON II. 



73 



avoid doing. A single evil thought, if indulged, gives 
rise to a multitude of thoughts of a like character, and 
thus in time the whole intellect and heart may be over- 
run with a retinue of the most depraved conceptions 
and sentiments. An evil thought is often the parent 
of an evil word. And how much is often done by a 
single word ! Thoughts and words give rise to ac- 
tions ; and what a world of iniquity is often produced 
by one bad action ! If we will give ourselves a little 
time for reflection, our own thoughtlessness in regard 
to our conduct will surprise ourselves. If we will re- 
flect, that one immoral remark or vicious example may 
unhinge in but a single mind only one virtuous senti- 
ment ; but yet that the overthrow of one check to vice 
may be the cause of yet another, and another, until a 
whole mind becomes lost in degradation, — if we will 
still further reflect that this corrupted individual will 
exert an influence to deprave yet others, and so on, till 
the moral pestilence has spread through a community, 
that follow the multitude to do evil ; if we will yet fur- 
ther consider, that the evil influence is not limited to a 
single generation, but may descend from fathers to 
children through a long period of successors ; if, I say, 
we will thus but view ourselves in the true relations in 
which we stand to our fellow men, how immensely im- 
portant must it appear to us that we carefully weigh 
the tendency of all our thoughts, words and deeds ! — 
how important that we strive to keep our hearts pure, 
our conversation clean, and our example spotless ! 
How accountable must we be, for the numerous mis- 



74 



SERMON II. 



chiefs that arise from our wrong-doings, and what a 
broad harvest of felicity shall we not reap from even 
our slightest endeavors to promote the cause of human 
virtue and happiness ! 

The law of God is exceeding broad, extending even 
to secret desires nourished in our hearts./ Now let us 
bring ourselves fairly before the tribunal of conscience, 
let us ask ourselves, if we have come near in our past 
lives to a conformity to this law. Alas ! alas ! we are 
weighed in the balance and found wanting. 

Have we not been loose in the restraining of evil 
thoughts, in the cherishing of impure desires? Have we 
not thus corrupted ourselves, depraved our imagination 
and debased our natures, and by these means, formed 
confirmed habits of secret sin, and rendered it more 
and more difficult for us to command our passions and 
appetites ? Have we been cautious about our words ? 
Have we not sometimes uttered sentiments which per- 
haps have caused some mind already wavering betwixt 
virtue and vice, to become decidedly vicious ? 

Have we not occasionally exhibited examples before 
those who look up to us with confidence, of a nature 
to weaken their moral sense, to make them think some 
wrong act less odious than they had been accustomed 
to regard it, or induce them to place less value upon 
some virtuous practice than they ought? Have we 
fulfilled our duty to ourselves, to our families, to our 
friends, to our enemies, to our neighbors, our superiors, 
our inferiors, our equals, to our country and our God, 
in such a manner, that we can come off clear and ac- 



SERMON II. 



75 



quitted from the judgment seat of our own unbribed 
breasts ? — My dear companions and friends, I fear, not. 
I fear that all of us, when tried in the impartial balance, 
will be found to be wofully wanting. What then have 
we to do ? Shall we bow in humility and deep con- 
trition at the footstool of sovereign grace, and confess 
ourselves sinners, and supplicate for mercy ? Yes, we 
must do all this, but we must do more. We must fur- 
nish a test that we are sincere in all this show of re- 
pentance. In a word, we must reform. 

Let us then, lastly, use the present occasion as a sea- 
son for reformation. Let us reform, in the first place, 
. our plan of life; let us adopt more strict and orderly 
rules for the arrangement of our behavior ; let us as- 
sume a higher standard of excellence, and fortify our 
minds by virtuous resolutions. And let us be careful 
not to stop at the gate of a well-meaning purpose ; no, 
but let us summon up every power to induce a thor- 
ough practical reform. But we will enter more into 
detail. I wish not merely to bring an indistinct, flat- 
tering exhibition of goodness before your minds. No ; 
our virtues and our faults are not ideal ; they are tan- 
gible shapes, which the mind can and ought to fasten 
upon. I begin then with our duty towards our Creator. 

Such, indeed, are all the duties which God requires 
of us, and which are to be performed with a sacred re- 
gard to his authority. Now have we been influenced 
by such a regard ? Has it often been a question which 
we have proposed to ourselves, 1 Is this what God re- 
quires of me ? Will it be acceptable to him ? Has 



76 



SERMON II. 



he not forbidden that ? If I do it shall I not sin against 
Heaven ? Can I, dare I ask the blessing of God upon 
this undertaking? And if I dare not, shall I dare to 
engage in it ? In the trying moments of secret tempta- 
tion, have we duly considered that the All-seeing eye 
is upon us, that our Maker will surely bring us to an 
account, that we are responsible to him for the improve- 
ment we make of all our advantages? When we have 
been blessed by prosperity, have we looked up in grat- 
itude to God ? When we have passed through scenes 
of adversity, have we recognized his correcting hand ? 
When dangers have stared us in the face, have we 
supplicated the divine guidance and protection, and re- 
posed in trust on his Almighty arm ? Have we striv- 
en to cultivate a spirit of resignedness to the divine 
will, have we endeavored to say from our hearts, not 
my will but thine be done ? When we have surveyed 
the beauties of nature and the bounties of providence, 
have our souls been excited to a devout reverence, 
and a glowing love to the benevolent Author of all our 
benefits ? If we have failed in either or all of these re- 
spects, let us resolve from this instant to correct our 
faults, and let us implore the assistance of our heavenly 
Father to aid us to live in his fear. Let us commence 
a system of reading every day some portion of his 
word, of meditating upon his truth, of sending up our 
prayers to the throne of his grace, of referring all events 
to his providence, and of living as continually under 
his penetrating eye. Thus shall we gradually form 
habits of piety ; thus shall we constantly become more 



SERMON II. 



77 



careful guardians of our thoughts, our feelings and our 
conduct ; thus shall we become more confirmed in our 
religious sentiments, more conscientious, more calm and 
composed in our contemplation of all events, wiser and 
better and happier. Do not lightly pass over these 
solemn suggestions. An enlarged and enlightened pie- 
ty is the noblest ornament of our nature. In propor- 
tion as it is neglected, the soul becomes absorbed in 
sensuality, and descends towards the level of the brute. 
I would not for all this world have the heart of that 
man who can treat the sacred sanctions of religion with 
scorn and contempt. Let us this ctay remember our 
faults as relates to our religious duties and strive to cor- 
rect them. 

Let us now turn our attention to our moral habits. 
And think you we shall find nothing there to correct ? 
How are we managing our worldly matters in general ? 
Are we engaged in some regular and honest occupa- 
tion ? Are we pursuing it with all that industry and 
prudence which are required of us ? 

Have we some definite and laudable object in life 
before us, and are we faithfully directing all our en- 
deavors in pursuit of it ? If so, we are, in this impor- 
tant respect, good citizens, and are laying the most 
substantial foundations of prosperity, contentment, and 
cheerfulness. Men talk of pleasures as if they were 
excluded from the ordinary rounds of business ; but the 
truth is, our pleasure ought to be in attending to our 
regular affairs. Man is never so truly happy as when 
his attention and powers are actively and successfully 

7 



78 



SERMON II. 



engaged in the prosecution of some worthy and hon- 
orable calling. I care not how wealthy a man maybe, 
he has no moral right to be idle. If he is so, he offends 
against God, society, and his own felicity. And as to 
the lazy poor, who, while blessed with health and ca- 
pacity,, are contented to live in servile dependence up- 
on the bounties of their friends, or the general charity 
of the world, few objects are more deservedly con- 
temptible. How is it, my friends, with us? Are we 
providing, to the best of our abilities, in an honest way, 
for our subsistence, for the support of those who are 
dependent on us, and for the general well-being of the 
community in which we live ? If we are not, let us 
now begin a thorough reformation. Is any one rich ? 
I do not mean, has he an immense fortune, but is he 
in circumstances of something more than ordinary afflu- 
ence, or has he a competency ? Let him ask himself 
if he has been as liberal in promoting objects of general 
advantage, if he has displayed as much public spirit, 
and if he has been as generous in relieving the suffer- 
ings of afflicted humanity, as his circumstances will jus- 
tify. Let him weigh this matter fairly as he would in 
the case of another person : let him cast aside all the 
sophistry with which interest is in the habit of address- 
ing her votaries, and then soberly put the question be- 
fore himself, has he used his property as bountifully in 
deeds of charity as it is likely at the hour of death, or 
the day of judgment, he may wish he had done. If 
his conscience answers him IVo, it is high time he 
should reform. 



SERMON II. 



79 



Are any living in habits of extravagance, which do 
not allow them the means of doing as much good as 
they ought, and more especially which are not justified 
by their incomes ? If they would escape embarrass- 
ment, ruin, and temptation to fraudulent practises, let 
them at once retrench their expenses, and introduce a 
more orderly arrangement in their affairs. I know 
there are many persons of good intentions, who yet 
suffer themselves to be led away from the practice of 
that economy which they are sensible, justice to their 
creditors, and justice to their families and to their own 
reputation and peace, imperiously demand of them, 
through a fear of being called parsimonious, or from a 
dread of sinking in the fashionable world. But to what 
does all this bustle and pomp of what is termed fash- 
ionable life amount? One hour of calm enjoyment by 
your own fireside, with your smiling family around, is 
worth more than all the ostentatious displays which 
you will meet with in expensive circles during your 
whole lives. 

I would not indeed that an unsocial spirit should be 
spread abroad. No ; it is well, at proper times and 
seasons to meet with our friends and neighbors, either 
in greater or less numbers as our circumstances may 
render proper. But I call upon you, men of compe- 
tence, to interpose the authority of your example in 
doing away this wretched system of frequent and cost- 
ly entertainments, now so injuriously prevailing amongst 
us. You cannot be blind to their ruinous effects. How 



so 



SERMON II. 



many, particularly among females are made the victims 
of protracted diseases and of premature death ! 

But the evil does not stop here. A fashion is es- 
tablished whose influence more or less pervades all 
classes. The rich man gives frequent and splendid 
entertainments. His neighbor with less means thinks 
himself bound to follow his example ; and thus this 
miserable imitation of artificial splendor travels on, daz- 
zling and luring to bankruptcy. I call then upon you, 
rich men, to banish from your houses this wretched 
custom : and in all respects to set before the world ex- 
amples of prudence and economy. I call upon you in 
particular, because you can afford to be economical. 
I say you can afford retrenchment ; that is, you have 
no occasion to fear that your retrenchments will be at- 
tributed to necessity ; while perchance your poorer 
neighbor dreads to excite the suspicion that he is poor. 

Are you afraid of being called miserly ? Show that 
you are not by your charities, not by your dissipations ; 
by your public spirit, not by useless squanderings. 
This is a time of pecuniary depression resulting from 
more causes than the removal of bank deposites. It 
is a time of ruinous expenditure. Our country is 
strangely and fearfully departing from its ancient sim- 
plicity. An age of fearful luxury has arrived. As 
good citizens, as prudent fathers and mothers, as sons 
and daughters, you will do what you can to arrest its 
progress, and push back its power. T have called up- 
on the rich to begin the work of reform ; I call upon 
every class of men to do likewise. A heedless man- 



SERMON II. 



81 



ner of incurring expenses, and of running headlong into 
debt, is one of the greatest evils among us. Let each 
one take care not to live beyond his means, not to ex- 
pend on anticipated profits, not to decorate his house 
or his person, at the cost of others. Let those of us 
who are in debt, use every vigilance and exertion to 
rid ourselves of that sore evil, as speedily as possible. 

What ought you to care for the opinion of those who 
indeed will ride in your carriage, or admire your fur- 
niture, or applaud the style of your apparel, or praise 
your dinners, or express a hearty relish of your wine, 
but who, if you are in distress will not give a dollar to 
relieve you, nay, who will envy you for a display 
above their means, laugh at you for the very luxuries 
of which they partake, and ridicule you the moment 
they suspect you are attempting to hide the scantiness 
of your resources, behind a short-lived extravagance. 
Let us all duly consider these things, and if we are in- 
dulging in any habits of living which may lead us into 
perplexity or temptation, or which render us incapable 
of increasing the sum of human happiness as much as 
we otherwise might, let us from this day commence 
with ourselves a radical system of reform. 

Is any one pursuing a dishonorable and unlawful 
occupation, an occupation in no wise necessary, and 
which can add nothing to the public good, but whose 
whole influence goes to deprave morals, to increase 
the burden of human distress, let him weigh well the part 
he is acting. If he has no respect for the opinion of 
the virtuous world, if he has confidence to brave the 
7* 



82 



SERMON II. 



glance of merited abhorrence, yet let him know and 
feel that there is a God in heaven, that will bring him 
to judgment for all the evils which result from the 
course he has taken. He may flourish for awhile like 
a green bay tree, but let him beware of the end ; let 
him beware lest even in this world the withering hand 
of retribution shall be laid upon him ; let him take 
heed lest the day of calamity overtake him ; let him 
beware of the horrors of an outraged conscience, and 
of the appalling reflections of a guilty death-bed, and 
of miseries yet more inexpressibly dreadful beyond it. 
O let him reform, and by an upright course secure 
again the favor of the good and the pardoning mercy 
and the approving smile of gracious Heaven. To him 
let the reflections of this day be the occasion of a time- 
ly reform. 

Are any of us addicted to intemperate habits ? I 
have no authority to set metes and bounds as to what 
my neighbor ought to eat or drink. Every one must 
be his own judge as to what is necessary or unnecessary, 
proper or improper for him. No ; but I call that man 
intemperate who either in eating or drinking, goes to 
such an excess as to disincline him to business, or to 
injure his health or estate, or in any way to unfit him 
for the most constant and successful use of his faculties, 
either of body or mind; or who is encouraging a grow- 
ing habit of a dangerous character, and which the more 
it is indulged in, the more difficult it will be found to 
overcome. I call such a man intemperate : and if any 



SERMON II. 



83 



of us are of this description, the present is the best time 
for reformation. 

Is any one of us leaning to habits of gaming ? I 
beg of him to examine the origin of the passion that 
gives rise to this habit, and considerately and conscien- 
tiously to reflect upon the multiplied evils attending 
its indulgence. I am speaking in no terms of harsh 
reproach, or of unfeeling censure. No, my dear friends, 
you know well that the wish is the furthest from my 
heart, to harrow up the feelings of anyone, or give him 
one unnecessay pang. But as a preacher of the gos- 
pel, it becomes my duty to lay before you the nature 
and consequences of vice. I stand before you as a dy- 
ing man addressing dying men, whose greatest possible 
interest it is to have just impressions in regard to right 
and wrong. Hear me then, as you would hear not a 
biting censurer but a faithful friend. The passion for 
gaming is grossly base in its origin. For whence does 
it spring but from a sordid love of gain, which is will- 
ing to take the money of another, without rendering 
an equivalent ? It is called a passion for amusement, 
but it is falsely so called. 

Are we immoderate in our devotion to pleasure ? 
We are called upon to check the evil, and to regulate 
our lives by more orderly and useful rules. If we have 
associated with evil company, it is now time to remem- 
ber that evil communications corrupt good manners, 
and to break off without a moment's delay, our com- 
panionship in the haunts of dissipation and revelry. 

Has any of us been unjust in his dealings ? He is 



84 



SERMON II. 



bound, not only to make a full stop in fraudulent 
practices, but to the best of his means to make restitu- 
tion. If he does not, let him be fully persuaded that 
the judgments of heaven in some shape or other, in 
this world or in the next, will be visited upon him with 
awful retribution. 

Has any one borne false witness against his neigh- 
bor ? Let him go straightway, to do all in his power 
to correct the evil impressions he has made. 

Is any one a busy-body in other men's matters, an 
exciter of strifes in families and neighborhoods, a tale- 
bearer, a brawler, or in any way a fomenter of jealous- 
ies, of feuds and quarrels ? Now is his time for effect- 
ing reformation. 

Let us for the future be watchful over our feelings 
and conduct. Let us study to discover the weakest 
points in our character. Every person has some pecu- 
liarly easy besetting sin. Every one has some weak 
side. By examining ourselves, we shall be more thor- 
oughly aware where and how we are most readily and 
successfully attacked ; and so be prepared the more 
effectually to guard ourselves against temptation. If 
indolence, or a violent temper, or a peevish disposition, 
or pride, or vanity, or avarice, or prodigality, or envy, 
or revenge, or neglect of the bible, or of prayer to God, 
or of public worship, or of a due observance of the 
sabbath, or profanity, or lewdness, or intemperance in 
eating or drinking, or gaming, is our peculiar vice, let 
us at once set ourselves to correct that single fault first 
of all. 



SERMON II. 



85 



In view of our own faults, we should learn to prac- 
tise charity towards the failings of our fellow men. 
Instead of spending our time and breath in calumniating 
others, in raking up their missteps in life, and pouring 
bitter and censorious remarks upon them, we should 
take care of our own hearts and conduct and characters, 
and leave God to be the judge of our neighbors. Sen- 
sible of our own frailties, we should be inclined to pity 
and forgive those of our erring fellow-creatures. Fi- 
nally, a remembrance of our faults should lead us to 
the most probable means of correcting them ; should 
lead us to study the bible, and to reflect upon its teach- 
ings ; to hearken to the counsels of friendly admonition 
and reproof; to regard the opinions of the good and 
reputable among our fellow-men: — to respect the gen- 
eral opinion of society, and to listen most scrupulously 
to the plainest and simplest dictates of the monitor 
within the breast. 



SERMON III. 



DIVINE JUSTICE NOT INCONSISTENT WITH DIVINE 
LOVE. 

John. iv. 8. • God is love. ' 

1 God is love,' is the solemn utterance of revelation ; 
and nature from all her complicated avenues and cham- 
bers, pours forth a clear and loud echo to this cheering 
voice from heaven. My Christian friends, collect your 
thoughts, and centre them all on the Supreme Being. 
Reflect that from all eternity he must have been infi- 
nitely happy, standing in no need, for the mere pur- 
pose of his own felicity, of inferior agents. Reflect 
that long before this earth was moulded into form and 
hung up to pursue its revolutions in the immensity of 
space, the Creator existed, supplied with unbounded 
sources of enjoyment from the contemplation of his own 
intrinsic and immutable glories. And what principle 
but love, what but an all-comprehensive desire for the 
happiness of animated and sentient beings, could have 



88 



SERMON III. 



prompted him to step forth, from the habitations of 
eternity, in the awful majesty of creative power, and 
with one fiat of omnipotence, call into existence a uni- 
verse ? We behold the earth we inhabit, spread out a 
broad and glowing canvass every where exhibiting the 
pencillings of love. We behold the sun travelling his 
journey of ages, and the moon walking in her bright- 
ness, and the everlasting orbs, 1 the poetry of heaven ; ' 
and from all this splendid exhibition, we hear the an- 
them of praise which nature sings to her God. In the 
capacity of man, in the constitution of inferior creatures, 
in the whole apparatus of creation, we find proofs that 
the finger of the Supreme Architect was moved by love. 

Thus God manifests his love in the works of crea- 
tion.- An exhibition of the same principle is made in 
the providential care he extends over his creatures. 
Love too is clearly seen in the requisitions of his law. 
If we inquire into the nature of his commandments, we 
shall find that they all proceed from a disposition to ren- 
der men happy ; happy as individuals and happy as 
communities. God's glory or enjoyment is not to be 
increased by the raptures of heaven, nor to be dimin- 
ished by the blasphemies of earth or hell. No ; but 
he has pointed out to man a path of duty as the only 
path to happiness. He has forbidden him such indul- 
gences alone as are destructive to his dignity and best 
enjoyments. 

God would make men happy, and to this end he 
commands them to be virtuous ; he would save men 
from abusing the highest endowment of their natures — 



SERMON III. 



89 



their moral freedom, and from the evil consequences 
necessarily connected with wrong doing, and to this 
end he forbids sin. 

The love of God is manifested also in his chastise- 
ments ; and this is the point in the field of topics which 
my text spreads before me, to which I design in the 
present discourse to direct my chief attention ; because 
I believe no subject is more generally misapprehended 
than that of God's justice. 

Nothing is more common among theologians than to 
hold forth the justice of God as at war with his mer- 
cy ; but it is impossible that two discordant attributes 
should exist in the divine mind. I regard the doctrine 
which represents divine justice as an attribute contrary 
to his mercy, and consequently demanding the endless 
sin and misery of his creatures when they have once 
sinned, as one of the worst doctrines that ever crept 
into and disfigured the church of Christ. I mean this 
as no imputation upon the minds or the hearts of its 
numerous advocates. The best of men and the most 
enlightened communities are, as the history of the world 
shows us, subject to very gross mistakes. 

The doctrine in question is plainly inconsistent with 
itself, and pernicious in its consequences. It is incon- 
sistent with itself, for it declares two natures in the 
Deity. This notion, if pursued, forms the direct road 
to Atheism. For it is just as consistent to suppose the 
existence of two Gods, the one friendly, and the other 
inimical, as to suppose the existence of two natures or 
attributes in the Supreme Being, the one diametrically 
8 



90 



SERMON III. 



opposite to the other. It is just as consistent to sup- 
pose the existence of twenty, or two hundred, or two 
thousand Gods, or first causes, as to suppose that of 
two. And it is just as reasonable to deny the being of 
God altogether, as it is to suppose such a plurality of 
Gods. 

This doctrine is inconsistent, fork represents God as 
requiring for the satisfaction of his justice, that, when 
the sinner has once disobeyed his law, he shall continue 
in eternal disobedience to that law, as if the law could 
be honored by affixing to it a penalty consisting in 
nothing less than the endless rebellion of the offender 
against it. The law of God requires holiness of the 
creature, and prohibits sin ; and as one means of deter- 
ring men from sin, it holds out a punishment propor- 
tionate to the guilt of each transgression ; but if we sup- 
pose that the same law which requires man not to sin, 
requires also that when man has once sinned, he shall 
as an unavoidable consequence be compelled to be for- 
ever a sinner, it is plain that we suppose the law to 
require everlasting disobedience. To say that men 
when they have once sinned may be permitted to con- 
tinue for a long period or even to all eternity to abuse 
their moral agency, is one thing — and a subject whose 
examination does not come within the scope of our 
present remarks ; but to say, that God Almighty is pos- 
sessed of an attribute which will be satisfied with noth- 
ing less than the eternal sin of a being who has once 
transgressed his law, is quite another thing, the ab- 
surdity of which we are at present exhibiting. You 



SERMON III. 91 

will still farther perceive the inconsistency of this doc- 
trine, when you reflect that, according to it, the justice 
of God is in perfect harmony with what has ever been 
regarded as the will and chief desire of the Arch-fiend. 
Our orthodox brethren admit that it forms the chief de- 
sign, the great end to the accomplishment of which the 
subtle adversary directs all his energies, to render men 
eternally hostile to their Maker. Now if we suppose 
that divine justice demands the same thing, we make 
Satan not only will but act, as far as his power with re- 
gard to mankind extends, in exact conformity to one of 
the divine attributes ; or in other words, we make Sa- 
tan divinely just with regard to man. Such, my hear- 
ers, is the real character of a doctrine whose deformity 
has been concealed by the gloss of language, by the 
solemn and holy words, Divine justice, and which has 
been rendered a prominent article in the faith of many 
very sensible and pious Christians. I have called this 
doctrine pernicious in its consequences, and it is emi- 
nently so. For its most direct tendency is to destroy 
our confidence in and our affection towards our heav- 
enly Father. If a man is taught to believe that his 
heavenly Father has one attribute which coincides 
with the will and aim of his worst enemy, Satan, con- 
cerning him, it will doubtless be the aim of that enemy 
to keep this attribute most constantly in the creature's 
mind, when he thinks of his Creator. And so that God 
can appear to us as an enemy, it matters very little in 
what plausible expressions his hostility toward us is 
clothed. Whether it is called tyranny, malevolence, 



92 



SERMON III. 



or cruelty, or whether it wears the smoother name of 
divine justice, the effect is the same, to excite and nour- 
ish a jealous, fearful, apprehensive and rancorous spirit 
toward the fountain of all love. And hence the oppo- 
sition which sinners manifest towards God, though at- 
tributed altogether to a carnal nature, is very often at- 
tributable to the wrong views which are presented from 
the pulpit to their minds. This doctrine is pernicious, 
inasmuch as it is the source of much infidelity. 

There are and always have been many who 
have discovered its absurdity, and supposing it to be 
taught in the bible, they have concluded that the bible 
must be a deception. I well recollect a remark which 
a very intelligent infidel once made to me, long before 
I had come to my present conclusions in regard to 
scriptural truth. Said he, 1 There is much that is val- 
uable in these Scriptures. There is too, I am aware, a 
vast deal of historical evidence which weighs heavily in 
favor of the Christian religion, and I would believe in 
it if I could. But if the bible contains such doctrines 
as election and reprobation, trinity, and infinite sin and 
misery, as our preachers, who ought to understand it, 
say it does, the intrinsic evidence against its being a 
revelation from God is greater than any historical evi- 
dence can be in its favor. 5 

I object to the doctrine in question still further, be- 
cause it exerts a baneful influence on the conduct of 
men in the social relations of life. It is in the nature 
of man to imitate the God he worships, to practise in 
accordance with those principles which he supposes to 



SERMON III. 



93 



constitute infinite perfection. Nay, according to Chris- 
tianity it is our duty to do so. We are expressly com- 
manded to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is 
perfect ; that is, to assimilate our principles of action to 
his, to form our moral character after the model pre- 
sented to us of his. We are exhorted to be pure as 
he is pure, holy as he is holy, merciful as he is merci- 
ful, to be followers of -him as dear children ; by all of 
which it is evident that we are required to be, in pro- 
portion to our capacities, in all respects like him. Now 
if we believe that God has an attribute contrary to his 
goodness or mercy, it is the natural influence of such 
a belief to cause us to plant and cherish in ourselves 
a temper and disposition contrary to humanity. We 
may treat our fellow-creatures with scorn, detraction 
and contempt, if they happen to oppose our views or 
interests ; we may exercise towards them the most bar- 
barous and unrelenting vindictiveness, and yet imagine 
that we are even more merciful towards them than 
God is, and flatter ourselves that we are imitating his 
justice and doing him service. The experience of 
many ages shows that the danger of which I am speak- 
ing is no wild chimera. The Apostle Paul was actua- 
ted by just such principles, in his persecution of the 
primitive Christians. No man ever had better reason 
to exclaim, 1 By the grace of God I am what I am, 5 
than this distinguished Apostle ; for before his conver- 
sion by the grace of God, there perhaps never lived a 
more sincere yet murderous, blood-thirsty bigot. 

Our forefathers of the Christian church believed that 

8* 



94 



SERMON III. 



divine justice demanded the endless punishment of 
heretics and sinners. They believed that God loved 
his friends and exercised an implacable hatred of his 
enemies ; and hence they concluded that they ought 
to love their friends and hate their enemies, that it was 
their duty to hate those whom they supposed God hated. 

Thus they flattered themselves that they were imi- 
tating God, in proportion to their degree of power, by 
consigning to the horror of the dungeon, the rack, the 
gibbet, and the burning stake, those who would not, 
within a certain limited time, believe and act as they 
supposed God required them to believe and act. When 
the new England puritans hung the quakers and whip- 
ped and banished the baptists, their reasoning no doubt 
was that these persons were errorists, that they were 
unbelievers in the true faith, and therefore enemies to 
God and to the cause of the Redeemer ; that God 
therefore hated them, therefore they his servants ought 
to hate them ; that God would banish them forever 
from his presence, that therefore they ought to banish 
them from theirs ; that God would scourge them with 
everlasting vengeance, that therefore they ought to 
scourge them too ; that God w T ould consign them to 
eternal death, therefore they ought to do their best in 
imitating him, by executing on them the severest pen- 
alty in their power, that of temporal death. Let it 
not be said, that the cruelty to which I allude resulted 
from the ignorance and general barbarity of the times, 
and not from a particular article of faith. I tell you, 
my friends, that the superstitions which have been 



SERMON III, 



95 



thrown around religion, that false views of God have 
done more than all other causes to barbarize men's 
minds. I tell you that the single tenet of endless mis- 
ery, in the form in which it is usually presented, has 
been the chief parent of persecution. Persecution is 
its legitimate offspring. If a man believes that doc- 
trine, is it not the most natural thing in the world for 
him to reason thus ? 1 Here is a heretic, who is leading 
men into error, thwarting the interest of God's people, 
and destroying souls ; am I not bound, then, to do all 
in my power to thwart and ruin him ? Is it not better 
that a few heretics should be murdered than that they 
should be permitted to ruin so many souls? I question 
not this was the reasoning of John Calvin, a murderer, 
though I hope a pardoned one, when he caused the 
benevolent, accomplished and unfortunate Servetus to 
be burned to death. Are all then who embraced the 
doctrines of Calvin persecutors ? By no means. 
Among them I can find some of the best men in the 
world. But how happens this ? Because they act in- 
consistently with their creed. Because they are not 
so bad as according to their doctrines they ought to be. 
Because, in practice, common sense and all the benev- 
olent principles which the God of nature has implant- 
ed in the human soul, come to falsify the errors of an 
understanding bewildered by theory; because they 
imbibe the spirit of a liberalizing atmosphere around 
them; because a host of generous influences from, 
other sources than their creed have worked their way 
into their minds, and counteracted the native tendency 



96 



SERMON III. 



of their doctrine, and nullified the power it is consti- 
tutionally formed to exert over their feelings and con- 
duct. I am assailing doctrines, not men ; the moral 
tendency of error, not the actual practice of all its pro- 
fessors. I know there are good men in all denomina- 
tions ; and I respect and love the good man of a bad 
doctrine, far more than I do the bad professor of a 
good one. It is in the spirit of the broadest charity 
alone, that I feel bound to oppose wrong news, and 
vindicate the honor of God and the truth which through 
Jesus he has revealed to us. We would hurt the feel- 
ings of no man ; but if the feelings of any one are so 
falsely delicate as to be wounded when we are endeav- 
oring to convince him that his Father in heaven and 
ours is a better Being than according to his creed he 
appears to be, we cannot help it. Must I not feel it 
my indispensable duty, let it bring upon me what re- 
proach it may, to show the absurdity and evil of a 
doctrine, which has filled the most sincere and devout 
Christians with tormenting apprehensions of their best 
Friend and Benefactor, which has sent reason stagger- 
ing from her throne in the heads of thousands, which 
has substituted, here a cold, selfish exclusiveness and 
bigotry in the place of a glowing and expansive char- 
ity; which has excited there a feverish and fitful fanat- 
icism in the room of a calm, rational, contemplative and 
practical piety; which has kindled the fires often thou- 
sand faggots in the place of the steady ardor and thrill- 
ing love of the Savior ; and which has thus spread 
darkness upon the simple doctrines, and reproachful 



SERMON III. 



97 



blots upon the pure cause of the Redeemer, and formed 
stumbling blocks over which too many great minds 
have fallen into the gulf of scepticism and infidelity ? 
O, say not that the evils of which I am speaking are 
the mere creatures of a wandering imagination; say not 
that they are light or uncommon. The voice of hu- 
man woe comes from every side to our ears in tones 
too deep and strong to be lightly heeded. The church, 
split up as it is into such a host of factions, is astonish- 
ingly corrupt, and must and will be purified. The 
gates of hell have been opened upon it, but will never 
prevail against it. The morning star of a brighter sky 
is arising over it, and the sun of righteousness will yet 
exhibit himself in his original, cloudless splendor. 

Having gone much further than the limits I had set 
to myself, in consideration of false ideas of divine jus- 
tice, I feel the necessity of advancing to what seem 
more consistent and correct views of that important 
subject. Justice in God, then, so far from being at 
war with his mercy and love, is in reality a form of 
this central perfection of the Deity. 

All the severity of God's justice towards his chil- 
dren is only the severity of parental love. All the ra- 
tional distinction there is between our idea of divine 
justice and our idea of divine mercy, arises from our not 
being fully acquainted with what God has promised. 
As far as our knowledge of what God has promised 
extends, so far we know his justice requires him to 
perform. God's eternal justice, or truth, is only a par- 
ticular modification of his eternal love. It is for the 



98 



SERMON III. 



good of the universe that he should perform his prom- 
ises, or in other words, that he should act according 
to what he has revealed of his nature. If we look or 
hope for any blessing beyond what we know God has 
absolutely promised, our idea of his giving that bless- 
ing is the idea which we express by the word mercy. 
Yet the mercy is not a display of a nature contrary to 
the divine justice, it is only a higher display of the 
same nature. 

When we are taught by revelation that what we 
call a mercy, was actually promised to us in Jesus 
Christ before the world began, we adopt the language 
of the Psalmist, — i Mercy and truth are met together ; 
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.' Not 
that they were ever really separated or distinct from 
each other in God, but separated and distinct in our 
ideas, until the gospel discovers to us that mercy and 
truth or justice are one in God. Then we can join 
with those who stand on the sea of glass mingled with 
fire, having the harps of God, saying, ( Just and true 
are thy ways, thou King of Saints.' 

We are accused of dwelling so entirely upon the love 
of God, that we cast a sense of his justice and of his 
more fearful attributes into the shade. Now the fact is, 
we believe that God is love, and that his justice is one 
of the most efficient agents through which he 
manifests his love and accomplishes its aims. In 
other words, we regard the justice of the Supreme 
Being not as at war against, but as existing in com- 
plete harmony with his mercy. The parent who 



SERMON III. 



99 



loves his child with true and prudent affection, is al- 
ways just towards him. It would argue weakness in 
him, not a regard for the welfare of his child, were he 
to encourage him in wrong doing, through the want of 
judicious chastisement. 

He would be both unmerciful and unjust towards his 
offspring, were he to suffer them to ensure their own 
ruin through his neglect of suitable correction. Now 
of God we believe, that all the misery, whether in this 
or the future state, which he has caused to be connect- 
ed with sin, is the result of his parental love and of his 
design to exhibit to the sinner the evil of sin, and the 
value of holiness, and thus to reclaim him in a way con- 
sistent with his free-agency, from transgression. Thus 
you perceive God is love in the strongest expression 
of his justice ; that he chastises for our benefit. 

Finally, the love of God is wonderfully manifested 
in the whole economy of redemption. Christianity is 
a system of love. Its dearest and brightest illustra- 
tions are expressed in figurative allusions to the strong- 
est ties which bind human hearts together, to the en- 
dearing relations of domestic joys. According to its 
representations the rational world is one great family 
of brothers and sisters, of whom God is the Father, 
and Jesus the elder and guardian brother. Thus we 
are exhorted to address God as 1 Our Father who art 
in heaven thus Jesus is called the first-born among 
many brethren ; thus he is represented as saying to 
his Father and our Father, his God and our God, e I 
will declare thy name unto my brethren, and in the 



100 



SERMON III. 



midst of the congregation will I sing praises unto thee.' 
His mission is spoken of as the direct emanation of the 
Father's love to the world ; ' For God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son.' He is held 
forth as the purest image of his Father's perfections. 
And all that he has done for mankind is the effect of 
love. An apostle, speaking of the affection of this our 
elder brother, says, ' who loved us and gave himself 
for us.' Yes ; it was love which brought him into our 
world of sorrow and woe ; it was love which warmed 
his heart with pity for sinners ; it was love which en- 
gaged him to oppose the false religion of his times, and 
all the black designs of the wicked. It was love which 
caused him to submit to the revilings and various per- 
secutions of infuriated men, and to seek the salvation, 
even in his dying prayers, of his enemies, rioting as 
they were in malevolence and cruelty. It was love 
which fired his soul with a divine zeal to proclaim the 
acceptable year of the Lord, granting liberty to captives, 
and opening the prison doors to them who are bound. 
It was love which caused him to endure the cross for 
us, and despise the shame. It was love stronger than 
death, which triumphed in his dying moment, crying 
1 Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do.' 

My brethren, we have glanced at some of the impor- 
tant displays of God's benevolence in creation and pro- 
vidence, in the commands and promises, prohibitions 
and threatenings of his law, in the corrections of his 
justice and in the mission of his son Jesus. What is 



SERMON III. 



101 



the practical use to be made of the reflections in which 
we have indulged ? They should inspire us with sen- 
timents of filial piety. They should excite in our 
hearts answering emotions of reverence, gratitude and 
love to God. If our Creator has fitted us for happiness, 
if he has surrounded us in his works with ample stores 
of comfort, we should exercise all that wisdom and 
temperance which is necessary to the proper enjoy- 
ment of them. If God has given us a law which di- 
rects us in the paths of peace, we should studiously 
learn and steadfastly practise in accordance with its 
teachings. If he has warned us against disobedience, 
and has laid before us its ruinous consequences, let us 
beware how w r e transgress, how we abuse the moral 
freedom with which he has endowed us. O my 
friends, sin is no trifle. It wars against the highest dig- 
nity of our souls, and stirs up the dregs of bitterness in 
our cup. I would not for the world utter a honied 
word to sweeten its intoxicating draught. I would not 
for the world lift up a curtain of human sophistry to 
darken the counsels of Almighty God, to hide from 
the eyes of my fellow sinners the terrors of his law. 
The thick veil which hangs over eternity, this poor 
mortal arm is indeed unable to lift up, so fully as to 
discover what duration or what degree of wrath the 
God of heaven, in his disciplinary goodness, may find it 
necessary to inflict upon that soul which in this world 
has been false to itself. But in holding up this lamp 
of inspiration, by the light which flashes from it over 
the gulf of the future, I discover this awful truth ; ev- 

9 



102 



SERMON III. 



ery man shall be rewarded according to the deeds done 
in the body. And let the firm conviction of this be 
enough to deter us from wickedness. Let it excite us 
without delay to work out our own salvation with fear 
and trembling. Our faith, if rightly understood, will be 
seen to be the very last one in the world to encourage 
men in transgression. If we sin, my brethren, we sin 
against the convictions of the most clear and certain 
truth, against the light of vast mercy and grace, against 
the pleadings of nature and scripture, of reason and 
conscience, of duty and interest, of justice and love. 
I know of no man so bad as he who wilfully persists in 
violating the commands of a Being whom he believes 
to be his best friend, his kindest benefactor. I know 
of no man so wretched and contemptible as he who 
heeds not the precepts of a Savior who has died tores- 
cue him. O, if there is one sin in the universe which 
cries with a stronger appeal than another to heaven for 
just and fearful retribution, it is the cold, thankless, 
mean, dastardly, soul-withering sin persisted in against 
the light of God's universal benevolence. 

O, let it never be said of us, that we have climbed 
up the pillar of promise to the very gate of heaven, only 
to show to the world how courageously we can dive 
from it into the polluted depths of habitual vice. Let 
us remember that if we sin, we sin against great light 
and boundless love ; let us be admonished that if we 
wilfully lay our hand to a foul deed, we maybe touch- 
ing a chord of misery which shall vibrate through a vast 
period of our existence. To what direful consequences 



SERMON III. 



103 



does the Almighty in this world sometimes suffer a sin- 
gle sin to lead ! How many a magazine of woe has 
been kindled by the momentary wickedness which the 
sorrows of years were unable to quench ! Let us then 
walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith we are 
called. Wherein we have erred, let us reform. Let 
us walk as children of the light, in the love of God, in 
the imitation of his perfections, in the keeping of his 
commandments. We may all know our duty. It is 
compressed into a single sentence : ' Fear God and 
keep his commandments ; for this is the whole duty of 
man.' 

My friends of this society, let me exhort you to live 
together in correct practices and brotherly love. Let 
no discords or dissensions spring up in our little family. 
I have been absent from you a much longer period than 
I had intended ; but such has been my health that I 
returned as soon as I thought I could be useful to you. 
God is now blessing me with the prospect of much bet- 
ter health than I have enjoyed for a long season, and 
if we unite our endeavors as we ought to do, our cause 
will flourish and prevail. In the Northern States, our 
prospects are wonderfully encouraging. The North is 
giving up, the South will not long keep back. Truth 
will finally triumph over prejudice. The petty spirit 
of sectarian jealousy and wrath and rivalry we must 
expect to encounter ; but if we are true to ourselves, 
to the world around us, to our Savior and our God, we 
shall not be overthrown. 

Brethren, I trust all the circumstances which for 



104 



SERMON III. 



three years have marked the course of my humble la- 
bors among you, will leave you no ground of distrust, 
when I tell you, my whole heart is in the cause of this 
church, within whose walls I have been consecrated to 
the service of a faith which merits any and every sac- 
rifice. And I have to thank you for the numerous to- 
kens of friendship and esteem, which I have received 
at your hands, through many embarrassments which 
inexperience, ill health, and other causes have thrown 
in my way. Upon the recommencement of services 
in this house, let me express a hope that the spirit of 
a yet deeper zeal may be kindled in our hearts, and 
animate us in diffusing the principles of universal char- 
ity and love, that all our transactions may be so con- 
ducted as to render the 1 walls' of our church ' salva- 
tion, and its gates praise. 5 



SERMON IV. 



ON TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION. 

James i. 26, 27. If any man among you seem to be religious, 
and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this 
man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God 
and the Father, is this ; to visit the fatherless and widows in their 
affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. 

When we are told, says a certain writer, that a man 
is religious, we still inquire, what are his morals? In 
however taunting a spirit this remark may have been 
made, the most pious Christian must admit, that it pos- 
sesses a mournful degree of justice, as well as wit. 
Indeed, the sentiment has obtained a surprising curren- 
cy in the world, that religion is rather a substitute for 
a moral life, than genuine morality itself, — that instead 
of its consisting purely in the love and practice of vir- 
tue, it is rather to be esteemed as a something to 
make amends for aberrations from duty. 

To a mind animated with just and generous senti- 
ments, it is a sorrowful thought, that in all ages of our 
race, and among the various denominations of men, 
this broad distinction between religion and practical 

9* 



106 



SERMON IV. 



excellence has been so extensively entertained. In 
each quarter of the globe, and in every period in 
which we can trace the history of human beings, they 
have exhibited a predominant propensity, to render 
homage, by one means or another, to a presiding divin- 
ity. And though various opinions have sprung up 
concerning the nature, dispositions, and requirements 
of the supreme object of adoration, though sects have 
been multiplied, though numerous institutions have 
been formed and esteemed sacred, though many op- 
posite forms of worship have been adopted, though 
worshippers have manifested the most immovable te- 
nacity to their respective sects, institutions, rites and 
ceremonies, and though dissensions have thence arisen, 
to diffuse over society animosities of the most direful 
character, to arm intolerance with the sword of perse- 
cution, and to desolate the world with rivers of blood, 
yet amidst all these conflicts of opinion, feeling and 
practice, in respect to one conclusion, a great harmony 
of sentiment has, most unfortunately, prevailed: this 
conclusion is, that the Deity is to be chiefly honored 
by services quite distinct from the steady pursuit of a 
blameless life. 

In the human soul, we discover a combination of 
properties, which forcibly dispose it to religious con- 
templations. Hence man has been called a religious 
animal. There is that within him, which elevates his 
soul to higher objects of trust and veneration, than the 
whole universe of matter affords, that which fixes deep- 
ly in his mind a sense of his own weakness and de- 



SERMON IV. 



107 



pendence, and inclines him to lean on an intelligence 
and power superior to his own — that which causes 
him to shudder at the prospect of annihilation, and 
prompts his thoughts to break away from the limits of 
the present scene, and explore new regions of being 
in remote futurity — that which awakens in his breast 
a consciousness of virtues and of sins, and inspires him 
with hopes and expectations of reward, ' a fearful look- 
ing for of just retributions. 

I look upon human nature as having, in its original 
constitution, the germ of a principle productive of all 
these effects, a principle more expansive and energet- 
ic, and when rightly cultivated and directed, possessed 
of a more sovereign power to dignify and bless, than 
all other endowments; but in its perversion, as having 
fearful capacities to degrade and wither all that is fair, 
and manly, and generous, and noble, in the soul. 
This principle I call the religious one. It is plainly 
formed to spend its whole strength in urging man up 
to lofty and virtuous attainments ; but it has to strug- 
gle against a headlong tide of opposing and desolating 
influences, and is often strangled, and drowned, and 
left a formless mass of corruption by the fury of the 
torrents that boil up, and roll onward from the foun- 
tains of lust and passion. Man finds in his animal 
nature gross principles, which are incessantly striving 
for mastery over the higher dictates of his judgment, 
and the more amiable feelings of his heart. He is 
continually called to listen to the mandates of e a law 
in his members warring against the law of his 'mind.' 



108 



SERMON IV. 



c He is in a strait betwixt two.' He loves to grat- 
ify his passions, and yet he dreads the consequence. 
He hugs vice, and yet trembles at vengeance. He 
looks on sin, lighted with a smile, but beholds heaven 
darkened by a frown. What has he to do — restrain 
his guilty appetites, or meet the wrath which awaits 
their indulgence ? He dislikes to do either, and seeks 
a remedy. He wants something that will prove an 
accommodation between him and his God — some- 
thing that will allow him to pursue his vicious inclina- 
tions, and yet avert the wrath of an insulted Deity — 
in a word, something that will answer in the room of 
virtue. Hence, glittering spires from consecrated edi- 
fices have towered towards heaven. Hence, altars 
have been reared, and the blood of sacrificial victims 
has smoked on their fires. Hence, men have made 
vows, and penances, and pilgrimages. Hence, sad 
looks and merry ones, feasting and fasting, imploring 
and blessing, laughing and crying, singing and sighing, 
groaning and shouting, kneeling and dancing, have all, 
at one time or another, been practised, and called 
serving God ; and thus rational beings have so far per- 
verted their faculties, as vainly to dream they were 
carrying on a successful barter with the Divinity, to 
pay him off in all this wretched trumpery of heartless 
observances, for the continual violation, through the 
indulgence of their unhallowed propensities, of the 
moral order of his universe. 

Man must and will have some religion or other; 
and since the practice of the true is attended by what 



SERMON IV. 



109 



he deems so many costly restraints upon his desires, 
he is prone to search out for himself, as a substitute, 
some baser principle of veneration, and to employ his 
powers in some service, that may at once serve to 
hush the tumult of his conscience and to secure him 
the approbation of the world — that in his own eyes, 
and in the sight of others, will give him the appearance 
of being truly religious, without subjecting him to the 
trouble of becoming really so. It ought not then to 
be deemed any disparagement to true religion, that an 
agent,whose proper office it is to maintain perpetual con- 
flict with the corrupt dispositions of human nature, and 
which every where so strongly asserts its claims to de- 
ference and respect, should, through our false views 
of happiness, and eagerness for enjoyment, be frequent- 
ly supplanted by principles of a gross and spurious 
character. — Silver and gold are valuable metals, and 
they are rendered no less so from the fact, that fraud- 
ulent avarice has often succeeded in producing from 
less precious materials close resemblances to them. 
The very worth which is attached to a genuine cur- 
rency, proves the occasion of the numerous impositions 
that are practised through counterfeits. Let not then, 
my Christian audience, the deplorable prevalence of 
false and hurtful views of God and duty, serve in 
any measure to close up your minds against the re- 
ception of such as are true and beneficial. 

Having thus lingered unusually, though perhaps not 
unpardonably long, about the threshold of my subject, 
and taken a general survey of its premises, I shall now 



110 



SERMON IV. 



proceed to a more particular illustration of the senti- 
ments embodied in my text, by endeavoring to make a 
proper distinction betwixt what constitutes the soul 
and essence of : pure religion and undefiled,' and those 
deceptive appearances that are sometimes mistaken for 
it. 

I begin by observing, that the abstract doctrines we 
profess, form no test of the purity of our practical re- 
ligion. While on the one hand, in many respects we 
may believe well, and yet generally practise ill, so, on 
the other, the influence of pernicious errors may be 
so counterbalanced in the mind, by opposite good 
principles, as to render the harboring of them consist- 
ent with great correctness of heart and life. And 
hence it is, that while false religion is often nourished 
and exhibited in regions and under circumstances the 
most favorable to the production of the true, that which 
is acceptable to God and salutary to the human soul 
is not confined to any special spot of earth, or within 
the limits of any particular religious denomination, but 
is cherished and manifested, as I maintain, not only 
among the several orders which bear the Christian 
name, but even far beyond the boundaries of the whole 
community, who acknowledge the New Testament as 
the standard of their faith. The pure religion spoken 
of in my text is plainly synonymous with virtue, in 
the broadest and best sense we can attach to that 
word. By virtue, I mean a just perception in the 
understanding of what is truly excellent ; such a pre- 
vailing disposition of the heart as leads us to love that 



SERMON IV. 



Ill 



which is right, and to abhor what is wrong ; and, what 
follows as a necessary consequence, the habitual prac- 
tice of an outward demeanor in harmony with a judg- 
'ment thus correct, and a heart thus pure. Virtue, so 
defined, forms the complete standard of true religion. 
To this standard, in its perfection, we cannot suppose 
any mortal ever to have attained. Imperfection must, 
in the nature of things, characterize every being but 
God. 

Among mankind, the most highly cultivated intel- 
lects are by no means free from misapprehensions con- 
cerning truth ; hearts the most amiable are still liable 
to improper desires, and lives the best regulated are 
yet defective. We may properly call a man truly re- 
ligious, just in proportion as in his sentiments and con- 
duct he approaches to perfect virtue ; and he is this, 
whether his advances in wisdom and goodness have 
been prompted and directed by the influence of one 
mode of instruction, or that of another. Whether he 
was born a Jew or a Gentile, of Catholic or Protestant 
parents; whether he has been guided to knowledge 
and duty by the discoveries of philosophy, by the 
maxims of Confucius, by the truths that are blended 
with the fables of the Koran, by some feeble and scat- 
tered rays of light that glimmer through the darkness 
of Pagan superstitions, by the broad glare of instruc- 
tion that beams from the sacred pages of Moses, and 
the holy bards of Judea ; or whether he has been bless- 
ed with the still broader glory of the star of Bethle- 
hem; under whatever circumstances of birth, or beneath 



112 



SERMON IV. 



whatever influences of education, his Creator has been 
pleased to place him, so that he improves the best ad- 
vantages he enjoys — so that his understanding makes 
progress in truth — so that he cultivates and exhibits 
benevolent feelings, and so that he is possessed of up- 
rightness of life, he honors the nature that God has 
bestowed on him, and is doubtless regarded by his 
Maker with approbation and love. This sentiment is 
plainly in accordance with the teachings of scripture. 
Says Paul, 'For not the hearers of the law are just be- 
fore God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 
For when the Gentiles which have not the law do 
by nature the things contained therein, these having 
not the law, are a law unto themselves ; which show 
the work of the law written in their hearts, their 
consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts 
the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.' 

In the expression of these sentiments, let me be nei- 
ther misunderstood nor misrepresented. The remarks 
I have just made, are by no means designed to convey 
the impression, that it is a matter of no consequence 
what a man believes; that it is of light moment what 
system of religious teaching he adopts; that it is just as 
well to be in faith a Jew, a Mohamedan, a Pagan, or 
an Atheist, as to be a firm, sincere believer in the 
Christian Religion — God knows, I harbor no such sen- 
timent. I know of no nobler gift which he could have 
granted to the immortal minds of his rational creatures, 
than the revelation he has made through his Son. 
But the written word, though the clearest, is not the 



SERMON IV. 



113 



only declaration of himself, with which the Creator has 
furnished his intelligent offspring. He has impressed 
deep and bold inscriptions of his being, his attributes 
and will, all over the splendid page of the material uni- 
verse ; and he has endowed man in every land, with 
a greater or less capacity, to understand and copy that 
excellence which he sees so abundantly displayed in 
his Maker's works around him. He has interwoven 
even the coarsest textures of the human soul with the 
nicest threads of humane and generous feeling. Vir- 
tues of the most admirable cast are often discoverable 
in minds obscured by gross barbarity. Among nations 
wanting all the refinements of civilized life, we may 
find striking exhibitions of the most noble and estima- 
ble qualities. And who but the veriest bigot, can 
doubt that the poor savage, whose benevolent feelings, 
breaking away from the limits of his own kindred and 
people, prompt the exercise of a rough but honest hos- 
pitality to the fatigued stranger, and even so far gain 
a mastery over the principles of retaliation, which so 
many circumstances contribute to nourish within him, 
as to cause him to render good for evil, to guide his 
enemy to his hut, and when thirsty, give him drink ; 
when famishing, bread ; when defenceless, protection ; 
when lost, guidance to his own land — I say, who can 
for a moment doubt, that this untutored child of nature, 
in the practical manifestation of such workings of the 
heart, renders a service far more acceptable to God, 
than all the pompous parade of external worship, often 
practised in decorated tempies? I believe, indeed, 

10 



114 



SERMON IV. 



that that holy energy which awakens and gives strength 
to the religious principle in man, is an all-pervading 
spirit, uncloistered within the confines of any sect or 
system, bounding its operations by no creed, rank or 
denomination of men. but communicating itself to the 
human mind, under a thousand different circumstances, 
and through a great variety of channels, finding in 
every country, and under various forms of worship, 
hearts honest and sincere, and animating them with 
juster perceptions of excellence and bolder purposes 
of duty. Yet though the divine spirit is thus diffusive, 
though God has no where left man without manifesta- 
tions of himself, and incitements to goodness, still it is 
evident that ends are to be accomplished in the soul, 
just in proportion to the adaptedness of means for their 
execution, and that one system of instruction may be 
an agent of vastly more power than aught else, to work 
into the mind, to fertilize it with benign influences, to 
plant it with deep and vigorous principles, and so con- 
vert it into a fruitful field for the constant residence 
and husbandry of truth and conscience. 

Christianity, if I rightly apprehend it, presents a 
system of this strong and generous character. The 
delineations it gives of the Supreme Being — of the 
spirituality of his nature — of his paternal plan of gov- 
ernment — of his inflexible justice — of his infinite com- 
passion, mercy and grace — of the unchangeableness of 
his dispositions, purposes and conduct; the soft and 
amiable, yet firm and manly spirit it breathes — the pa- 
tient endurance of evils it enjoins — the willingness it 



SERMON IV. 



115 



goes to establish, to meet tribulations, and to seek even 
martyrdom, rather than to warp or violate conscience — 
the general purity and devotedness to virtue of heart 
and life, it enforces — the example it furnishes in the 
person of the Savior — the assurances it gives of immor- 
tality — in short, its whole power to stimulate to action 
the most potent energies of our moral nature — to pro- 
duce freedom of thought — to awaken fear, caution and 
prudence — to inspire hope, gratitude and love, through 
the diversified views it affords, of the divine pleasure, 
and of man's duty, interests and prospects — the suc- 
cess with which it has condensed the most compre- 
hensive and useful teachings within a small compass, 
thus demanding no tedious investigations of detail, but 
fitting its most important truths to the ready compre- 
hension of all, and by single and concentrated efforts, 
throwing before the mind a profusion of moral light ; — ■ 
the whole plan of operation it thus pursues, in regard 
to ends and means, gives to the gospel an unspeakable 
superiority, as a benign and efficient agent to act on 
men's minds, over the whole train of influences that 
have been summoned and disciplined in the citadels of 
infidel philosophy, or marshalled on the plains of fabu- 
lous theology. 

In speaking in such terms of the character and ten- 
dency of Christianity, I have made no parade of heart- 
less sounds. I have uttered what I fully believe and 
solemnly feel. Under the force of such impressions, 
I can conceive of no schemes too vast, and ot no labors 
too severe, to extend and perpetuate the pure, unadul- 



116 



SERMON IV. 



terated influence of the Christian religion. Yet much 
as we ought to prize the blessings of the New Testa- 
ment, we are not to imagine that those who enjoy its 
benefits are the exclusive objects of the Universal Fa- 
thers favorable regard, or that genuine goodness is 
restricted to them. No, we are bound to award hon- 
or, esteem and charity, to the virtues of the conscien- 
tious Mohammedan, Pagan or Jew; while the mere 
profession of the name of Christ, unaccompanied by a 
temper and practice in conformity to his, entitles no 
one to credit in the sight of God or man. We are to 
love and venerate integrity and purity of heart and 
life, as the peculiar features of our Maker's image in 
the human soul, wherever we meet with them, wheth- 
er in Jew or Gentile, more than any outward profes- 
sion of religion : and we are to esteem the Christian 
religion above every other religious system, because, of 
all the means of spiritual improvement which God has 
bestowed on man, we find it the most promotive of 
virtue. 

We are to honor Christ, because he honors the Fa- 
ther, in striving to advance the perfection of his noblest 
work — the immortal soul ; and we are to express our 
reverence for the Savior, by conforming to his precepts, 
and copying his example. But we may be boisterous 
in vocal praise to 1 God and the Lamb : ; we may 
weary echo J with the loud repetitions of Lord, Lord 
— we may call ourselves by the holiest name, and 
unite with the purest communities of Christians, and 
yet suffer all our faith to evaporate m words and ap- 



SERMON IV. 



117 



pearances. We may adhere with great pertinacity to 
the letter of the Gospel, and yet be uninfluenced by 
the amiable spirit of its Divine Author, and so after 
all be as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, seem- 
ing 1 to be religious,' but deceiving our own hearts, 
and possessing a religion altogether vain. And even 
while our knees are planted before an altar of homage, 
and while the sacred name of the Lord Jesus Christ 
is on our lips, and words of supplication to Jehovah 
are breaking forth from our tongues, expressing great 
pity and imploring mercy for the benighted heathen, 
we ought to beware lest, in the sight of the heart- 
searching God, we are viewed as far less the children of 
the kingdom of heaven, than many a poor, ignorant, but 
sincere and well meaning son of nature, who is igno- 
rantly, yet devoutly offering the best religious service 
he knows of, in a sacrifice to a senseless idol. 

These reflections lead me to remark, in the second 
place, that those expressions of uncommon zeal and 
earnestness, which we occasionally witness among re- 
ligious sectarians, to impress the minds of others with 
their own peculiar tenets, are frequently attended by 
no evidence that they are the effects of e religion pure 
and undefiled.' Men may be very zealous, and very 
sincere too in their zeal to promote either a good or a 
bad cause. It does not go a step, to prove the good- 
ness of a cause, that it has a large body of partizans, 
or that those partizans secure to themselves great pow- 
er, and employ it with untiring assiduity in extending 
their mutual interests. If it proved any such thing, 

10* 



US 



SERMON IV. 



the kind of proof might be successfully adduced in 
support of the pretensions of more than half the reli- 
gious orders under heaven : since hosts have rallied 
around the respective standards of a great number of 
sects, and have been animated by the most irrepressi- 
ble earnestness to procure for their opinions general 
pect and veneration. The Pharisees of our Savior's 
time were, according to their own professions, the 
only orthodox religionists in the world ; yet it is plain, 
that among some truth, they embraced and propogated 
many gross and pernicious errors. Jesus frankly in- 
formed them, that they 1 made the commandment of 
God of none effect' by their 'tradition.' Yet they 
■'compassed sea and land to make one proselyte.' 
Now this proves that they were exceedingly zealous 
in their sort of religion, but it does not prove that re- 
ligion to have been pure and underlie d : — it shows 
what great exertions they made to push forward their 
cause, but it does not show that cause to have been a 
good one: for immediately after our Savior had spoken 
of their great efforts to make a proselyte, he declares, 
c and when ye have made him, he is two fold more the 
child of hell than yourselves.' 

What people, let me ask, discover a more rigid te- 
nacity to their peculiar doctrines and institutions, than 
do the Mohammedans ? Who esteem themselves more 
orthodox, or express a more feeling concern for the 
souls of their fellow-men ? Who express more joy at 
the conversion of an unbeliever to their faith, or who 
exhibit a stronger panic of dread and horror in antici- 



SERMON IV. 



119 



pation of the awful wrath which, they suppose, awaits 
such as dare refuse assent to the pretensions of the 
prophet and Omar ? Take for instance the following 
account, given by Major Denham in his 1 African Tra- 
vels,' of an interview betwixt a few Mohammedans and 
a party of English travellers : — £ When the true, believ- 
ers, as they styled themselves, saw that the English 
travellers were not of their faith, Boo Khaloom, an 
Arabian leader, told the people that the English were 
unfortunate ; that they did not believe in the book, 
(the Koran); that they had a book of their own, (the 
Bible), which did not speak of Mohammed ; and that, 
blind as they were, they believed in it ! This account 
was received by a general groan ! One Malem Chad- 
ily, however, did not content himself with groaning ; 
he exclaimed, " turn ! turn 1 say God is God, and Mo- 
hammed is his prophet ! — Wash, and become clean, 
and paradise is open to you. Without this, what can 
save you from an eternal fire ? Nothing : O, while 
sitting in the third heaven, I shall see you in the midst 
of the flames, crying out to your friend Barca Gana 
and myself, friend give me a drop of water, but the 
gulf will be between us, and it will be too late. The 
Malem's tears flowed in abundance, during this ha- 
rangue, and every body appeared affected by his elo- 
quence.' 1 dismiss this narration, with a single re- 
mark: we are forcibly reminded by it, of the deep and 
permanent convictions, which education may fasten on 
the human mind, in favor of the most abominable su- 
perstitions. 



120 



SERMON IV. 



Among the numerous denominations of Christians, 
no one, perhaps, has given evidence of such unquench- 
able enthusiasm and untiring zeal, as the order of the 
Jesuits. This enterprising body flourished for a con- 
siderable part of two centuries, in which period they 
contrived to make their power felt over a great part of 
the globe. Their whole policy was founded in an in- 
timate acquaintance with human nature. They knew 
how to find access to the predominant passions of the 
heart. They could aid political ambition, in its acqui- 
sitions of power; they could weave the garland of 
literary fame, to deck the brow of the aspiring student ; 
to avarice they could offer means for accumulating 
wealth ; they could inspire hopes from their smiles, 
and fears from their frowns, in every grade and class 
of the community, from the monarch in his palace to 
the peasant in his hovel. They shut themselves up 
in no monasteries, but freely mingled in the several asso- 
ciations of active life. They could accommodate them- 
selves to all manners and habits ; with the bigot, they 
could affect bigotry ; with the liberalist, they could 
reason down the peculiarities of their creed into a show 
of liberality of sentiment. They secured the influence 
of the females, and had power to forward or hinder 
various matrimonial alliances. They animated the 
wife to enlist to their schemes the favor of the husband, 
and the mother to plant a reverence for their opinions 
and persons among the earliest and therefore most 
durable impressions of her children. They sought and 
obtained an almost entire dominion over the education 



SERMON IV, 



121 



of youth ; their teachers conducted the most humble 
schools, and presided over the most distinguished sem- 
inaries of learning. The works of their authors, from 
the ponderous tome down to the little pamphlet, were 
circulated in all directions; their priests were often 
those who had been selected from the most obscure 
and indigent families, and educated by the charity of 
the order ; and thus, a steadfast adherence to their 
opinions and rules was secured from numbers of the 
clergy, by the double tie of prejudices firmly riveted, 
by a long and restricted course of education, and an 
abiding consciousness of dependence. 

Under the specious pretext of £ advancing the Re- 
deemer's kingdom/ instead of their own aggrandize- 
ment, vast stores of wealth were procured from various 
sources, and deposited in their coffers. The spirit of 
exclusiveness animated the whole range of their pro- 
ceedings. Their denunciations were lavished on her- 
etics, and no artifice passed untried, which promised 
the downfall of whatever opposed their designs. Their 
power over men's minds and destinies fell short of 
scarcely any thing but omnipotence. All Europe 
trembled beneath the stately tread of their gigantic in- 
fluence, while the feet of their missionaries impressed 
the shores of remote regions. Even the untutored na- 
tive of the American wilderness, was taught to bow at. 
the nod, and cower at the frown of the stern supporters 
of £ the holy mother church.' Such were the Jesuits, 
among whom were many prodigies of learning, and, no 
doubt, many sincere, well-meaning christians, but who 



122 



SERMON IV. 



as an order, I believe it will be generally agreed, at 
least among Protestants, formed the most aspiring, en- 
ergetic^ corrupt and dangerous assemblage of men, that 
ever disgraced the sacred name of Jesus. They at- 
tained to the climax of wickedness, and met a just ret- 
ribution in a rapid and violent overthrow; and the very 
name of their sect floats on the memories of mankind 
as a thing of pollution, while their history remains as a 
perpetual warning to the minister of the altar, of the 
judgment which hangs over him who dares profane 
the meek and beneficent spirit of Christianity, by light- 
ing in its temple the ' strange fire' of unhallowed self- 
advancement and party intolerance ; and to the guar- 
dians of the state it preaches a faithful exhortation, to 
bar out from the policy of government, the sacrilegious 
intrusions of ecclesiastical intrigue. 

My design in advancing the considerations I have 
here brought to view, is totally misapprehended, if I 
am understood to offer any disparagement to a truly 
pious engagedness and perseverance. Zeal cannot be 
too much prized and commended, when it proceeds 
from a really benevolent motive, when it is directed to 
the furthering of a worthy object, and when it is reg- 
ulated, in all its operations, by knowledge, prudence 
and discretion. 

' It is good, ' says the apostle, c to be zealously af- 
fected, always, in a good thing.' But again he speaks 
of a e zeal not according to knowledge.' The conclu- 
sion I wish my remarks to leave on your minds, my 
friends, is, that we cannot be too active in doing good. 



SERMON IV. 



123 



We are not to mistake the mere spirit of excitement, 
which occasionally animates an ambitious sect to ad- 
vance its peculiar interests, for the tranquil and steady 
operations of that meek, unostentatious and unrestrict-. 
ed charity, which forms the essence of c religion pure 
and undefiled.' 

I pass on to remark, that the cultivation of a de- 
sponding tone of feeling in the mind, and the exhibi- 
tion of a formal sanctity and gloom, in the outward 
demeanor, not only do not constitute true religion it- 
self, but are no favorable indications of it. I speak 
thus, because ( disfigured faces' and sad counte- 
nances' were especially alluded to by our Lord, as the 
peculiar marks of hypocrites ; because, too, the gene- 
ral observation of mankind goes to establish the pro- 
priety of his hints, and because I feel that religion has 
suffered great misapprehension and injury from the 
solitary and gloomy dress she has so frequently been 
made to assume. We have not to visit the abodes of 
monastic seclusion, to find devotion habited in a stud- 
ied dress of mournfulness. No, in the promiscuous 
intercourse of social life we discover with what success 
an association can train its members to a peculiarity of 
movement and appearance — to the deep-drawn sigh — 
to the slow, hollow utterance — or, when rapid and 
foaming, to fearful and terrific notes and cadences, to 
a distended visage, and to a uniform air of solemnity, 
dejectedness and sorrow. It is true, religion presents 
solemn truths, and goes to inspire deep feeling ; but 
deep religious feeling has more appropriate expressions 



124 



SERMON IV. 



than a sour look, a formal air, a sighing utterance, or a 
canting phraseology. Its proper manifestation is the 
cheerful performance of the several duties religion pre- 
scribes. I would by no means encourage a trifling 
levity of thought, feeling or deportment ; I would only 
discountenance the idea, that religion is necessarily ac- 
companied by any thing unsocial or forbidding ; and 
we ought always to be suspicious of the depth of a 
man's understanding, or of the purity of his intentions, 
when we discover that he would attach to himself im- 
portance and respect, by the mere solemnity of his 
outward carriage. 

The experience of mankind will show, that the most 
grave and formal are in general very far from being 
the wisest or best men. The owl wears the deepest 
gravity of visage, and utters the most desponding note 
of perhaps any of the feathered tribe, but has never 
been valued for profoundness or benefit. The more 
cheerful songsters of the grove have a power to awaken 
sensations far more thrilling and generous. Many 
man should be cheerful, it is he who confides in the 
Supreme Being, and who through virtue excludes from 
his breast an upbraiding conscience. 

I observe, in the fourth place, that a man may seem 
to be religious, and ' deceive his own heart, ' in the 
practice of a religion that 'is vain,' by mistaking the 
rigid observance of rites, ceremonies, and various out- 
ward forms of worship, or animated tones of feeling, for 
the practice of true religion. I have no idea that the 
heathen are a more pious people than the believers in 



SERMON IV. 



125 



Christianity ; but it is certain that the most zealous 
Christians fall far behind the devotees of Moslem faith, 
or the poor victims of Hindoo superstition, in clevoted- 
ness to prayers and sacrifices, and various expressions 
of religious homage. It is no little commendation to 
the gospel system, that its founder has sanctioned so 
few external ordinances; that, unimpeded by a load of 
burdensome ceremonies, it carries its whole weight di- 
rectly to the heart, and strikes at once on the springs 
of moral action. Still, in Christian communities, a most 
undue respect is often paid to a few formal acts of re- 
ligious service. 

I know of nothing more common among us, than to 
hear an individual distinguished from others, as a really 
pious man, whose sole claim to such a character rests 
on the facts of his having related a certain routine of 
feelings, which a grave body who assumed to be good 
judges of the operations of the holy spirit, agreed to 
call genuine conversion, — of his having been baptized 
— become a communicant at the Lord's table, and of 
his occasionally reading scripture, and offering up a 
prayer in presence of his family or in a religious meet- 
ing; while if we become intimately acquainted with 
him, we may find that he is neither enlightened by 
Christian truth, nor merciful to the poor, nor even just 
in his ordinary dealings with his fellow men. Yet this 
man thinks himself vastly more acceptable to God, than 
his less ostentatious neighbor, who makes not half his 
professions, but is uniformly a compassionate, charita- 
ble, and strictly upright member of society. The one 
11 



126 



SERMON IV. 



passes in the world for a religious man ; and though 
his brethren of the church are sometimes forced to ad- 
mit that he seems somewhat too worldly minded, that, 
practically, he does not appear to be quite so good a 
Christian as he might be, still they maintain he relates 
a very satisfactory experience, and they have great 
charity for him, expressing little or no doubt but that 
he "knows what religion is, and so will finally get to 
heaven ; while the other is called a mere moralist, who 
indulges the silly conceit that the most efficient means 
of gaining the approbation of his Maker, is to do good 
to his creatures : and professing Christians, though they 
allow that, so far as the trifling matter of morality, of 
good works is concerned, he certainly merits esteem, 
are fain to look fearful for his eternal destiny, and to 
express pity that so good a man, through want of ac- 
cordance with them in relation,to some prescribed dog- 
mas of faith, should render himself constantly obnoxious 
to the terrible vengeance of a vindictive God. People 
who think and talk thus at random, ought to be re- 
minded that no train of inward sensations deserves a 
moment's respect, unless it becomes productive of out- 
ward morality ; that outward ceremonies are of no 
value, only so far as they point and incite the heart to 
just exercises ; that the scriptures are of no more con- 
sequence to us than the columns of a newspaper, ex- 
cept in proportion as we apprehend their meaning, re- 
ceive their instructions, and are thereby induced to live 
agreeably to their precepts ; that though daily acts of 
religious devotion, when properly appreciated and 



SERMON IV. 



127 



rightly practised, are most prolific sources of good or- 
der in our hearts and in our houses, yet mere songs of 
praise and ivords of prayer are as idle as the senseless 
breeze, any farther than they serve to promote our ad- 
vances in practical virtue ; that no sentiments can 
be essentially defective, which are consistent with uni- 
form uprightness of conduct ; that the only just rule 
forjudging the tree, is by its fruit; that as to faith, 
' his cannot be wrong, whose life is in the right.' 

Thus, my friends, have I labored in the preceding 
remarks, to separate truth from error ; to discard false 
views, and to bring to light just ones, in regard to a 
most important subject ; in a word, to discover what 
are the real, and what the illusory tests of vital holi- 
ness. We have seen that many things pass in the 
world for true religion, but that appearances are not 
always realities ; that many things are called true re- 
ligion, but that names are not things, nor, in every case, 
just representatives of things. 

Let me conclude this discourse, by giving a summa- 
ry answer to the questions, what is true religion — ■ 
wherein does it consist — how is it manifested. I 
reply, briefly, that it is a principle of knowledge, of 
feeling, and of habitual practice — a principle residing 
in the rational understanding, and consisting in a right 
apprehension of the relations in which we stand, and 
the consequent duties we owe to God and our fellow 
beings — a principle, imbuing the affections with a love 
of what is right, and a just abhorrence of what is wrong 
— a principle animating the will with high and fixed 



128 



SERMON IV. 



purposes of adherence to unsophisticated conscience — 
a principle of charity, justice, beneficence and purity, 
breaking forth from the heart into a vigorous outward 
practice, and exhibiting the strong and amiable charac- 
teristics ascribed to it in the concluding verse of my 
text — 'Pure religion and uridefiled before God the 
Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in 
their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the 
world.' 

Our duties, then, are plain and practicable. To 
render ourselves acceptable to our Creator, we have 
but rightly to employ the means he has set before us 
for improving our minds in the knowledge of his being, 
attributes and will, and thence to gain clear ideas of our 
own duties, interests and prospects, to watch over our 
hearts and lives, and as far as in us lies, to preserve 
them from impurity, and sedulously to use our best en- 
deavors for promoting the general welfare of mankind. 
God has given us high intellectual endowments, and 
we are bound to make a free and diligent use of them 
in searching after truth ; but we are to do this without 
looking with a scornful eye on our brother, who in the 
exercise of his faculties has come to different conclu- 
sions from our own. We are to recollect that, howev- 
er much the sentiments of others are at variance with 
ours, they can be no more so than ours are at variance 
with theirs. We are to be zealous and active in ad- 
vancing the cause of truth, without becoming bigots to 
a party or exhibiting ostentation of righteousness. 
We are to be seriously impressed with a just sense of 



SERMON IV. 



1-29 



our responsibilities, and of the proper character and 
present and future consequences .of human conduct, 
without sinking into distrust of the supreme goodness, 
or cultivating an unamiable mournfulness of feeling, or 
assuming an air of sanctimonious austerity ; we are to 
exercise ardent love to God and man, without degrad- 
ing ourselves by a feverish, unsalutary fanaticism ; we 
are to observe with respectful attention whatever re- 
ligious ordinances the New Testament prescribes, with- 
out becoming cold formalists. In the blended light of 
reason and the Scriptures, we are to distinguish be- 
tween the operations of the spirit of God and the emp- 
ty illusions of an excited imagination. We are to 
strive to cherish in our breasts the spirit that was in 
Christ, but to banish the spirit of religious sectarianism, 
bigotry and frenzy. We are to have a clue respect for 
our own welfare, without infringing on the rights of 
our neighbors — and we are to serve our fellow men, 
without neglecting what is due to ourselves. We are 
to use the world as not abusing it. We are to be in- 
dustrious and frugal and prudent, without becoming 
avaricious, sordid or mean. We are to strive for em- 
inence in our several employments, without indulging a 
crafty, intriguing, soul-polluting ambition. We are 
cheerfully to taste the various innocent enjoyments of 
life, without suffering ourselves to be vitiated by sen- 
suality. We are to be compassionate and beneficent 
towards the poor, the sick and the friendless — to spread 
fuel on the cold hearth — bread on the naked board — 
clothes over the shivering body. In a word, if we will 
11 s 



130 



SERMON IV. 



be Christians, we must copy the stainless example of 
Christ, the history of whose life is abbreviated into a 
single sentence, ( Jesus went about doing good.' It is 
thus we are to apprehend and practise ' pure religion 
and undefined.' Devoid of mystery, comprehensible 
and plain are God's requirements, presenting a path 
so clearly marked, that the way-faring man, though a 
fool, need not err therein. — c He hath showed thee, O 
man, what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of 
thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk hum- 
bly with thy God.' 



SERMON V. 



RESIGNATION. 

John xviii. 11. e The cup which my Father hath given me, 
shall I not drink it ?' 

At a period like the present, when a fell destroyer,* 
arrayed in horrors of a most fearful cast, is striding 
over the earth, and covering its path with desolation ; 
when it has impressed its foot in the shores of our own 
land, and is at this moment rioting in the distresses of 
our countrymen, when all eyes are turned to the direc- 
tion it is pursuing, and catching at every rumor that 
speaks of its ravages and that seems to betoken a near- 
er approach to our own thresholds ; when public 
consternation is aroused to a high pitch, and when re- 
ligion is perhaps in too great a measure engaged in 
ministering fresh impulse to a state of feeling every 
way calculated to predispose the community to the 
disease from which it prays to be delivered — at 
such a time, as a humble ambassador of the gospel 
of peace, I have thought I could not render a better 
service to my hearers than to call their minds to the 
* The Asiatic Cholera. 



132 



SERMON V. 



consideration of a subject, which embodies within itself 
all that moral improvement which, as rational beings, 
we ought to derive from seasons of peculiar general 
calamity — I mean the subject of Christian resignation. 
It is this sentiment which is couched in the most strong 
and touching terms in the words of my text : c The 
cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink 
it? 5 There is not in all revelation a more faithful de- 
lineation of a meek and quiet and resigned temper than 
we find in the words before us. 

He who uttered them has claims upon our attention, 
which no other person can urge. It is he to whom 
all kings must bow, whose dominion is an everlasting 
dominion. In the ordinary occurrences of life we look 
up to great characters for examples. Here we have a 
model in whom dwelt the spirit without measure ; here 
is one anointed with the oil of gladness above his 
fellows, one who could indeed suffer, but was sinless, 
and who from the union of the two qualifications was 
most perfectly fitted to be our holy example. It is 
this c man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,' whose 
voice we now hear in the pathetic question before us : 
' The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not 
drink it ?' 

In illustration of the subject before us, I propose, 
1st, to treat of the true character of Christian resigna- 
tion ; 2dly, to show whereon it is founded; and 3dly, to 
illustrate and enforce its proper practical effects. 

I. What then is that temper of mind which we denom- 
inate Christian Resignation ? How shall we describe 



SERMON V. 



133 



the several qualities which go to compose it ? What 
words can correctly define it ? It is not what frequent- 
ly passes under the name of philanthropy. The name 
as it is often, perhaps generally received, is by far too 
cold. It expresses not the efficiency which religion 
ascribes to her maxims; for in truth, it possesses no 
efficiency. It proposes remedies indeed for the ills of 
life, but unhappily they are often as bad as the disease 
they are designed to remove. In proportion as stoical 
philosophy would bestow comfort, it would repress 
feeling; and thus, in its effort to make us something 
more than men, it would first make us something less. 

Resignation is not insensibility. It does not imply 
that men should be careless or unconcerned. No ; they 
should be sensible of the hand of God in his providen- 
ces, and acknowledge it. As directed in the scriptu- 
ral exhortation, — c Know that I am God ;' that is, be 
sensible that my hand is in this thing, that this calam- 
ity is in accordance with my purposes and brought 
about through the operation of the immutable laws 
which I have established for the government of the 
universe. Job said, ' The Lord hath given and the 
Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
Lord.' So Eli said, — c It is the Lord, let him do what 
seemeth him good.' Men should be sensible too that 
there is a just cause in themselves why they should 
be afflicted — as David said, — 'Is there not a cause? 5 
People are exceeding prone to run into one or the 
other of these two extremes — either to manifest an un- 
due fright and terror, to faint and to sink under the 



134 



SER3I0N V. 



afflicting hand of God, or to neglect, to overlook it. 
Christian resignation is not that torpor of the faculties 
and powers, that apathy of the mental system which 
makes such a figure in the doctrines of the stoics. 
Had the sages of antiquity understood the morality of 
the Gospel, had they known the true dignity of man, 
they would have escaped many absurd maxims and 
preposterous conclusions. The feeling and conduct 
which revelation enjoins upon the afflicted, is not well 
expressed by the word fortitude, especially in the loose 
sense in which this word is generally used. This sup- 
posed virtue is often the result of shame and pride, 
which lead us to avoid complaint under the ills of life, 
because we conceive that such conduct detracts from 
the native dignity of man. But if a sense of this dig- 
nity composed the only basis of true resignation, we 
should not have seen it, as in the text, referred to the 
Supreme Being, as its cause and support ; nor should 
we have found infidelity itself giving it this decided 
superiority, when allowing that c Socrates suffered like 
a philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a God,' We 
wrong ourselves much when we make a false estimate 
of our powers of endurance, and rest with sanguine 
expectation upon the proofs which we will give of a 
steady and uncomplaining mind. There are cases 
where to know our own weakness is our greatest 
strength, where to aspire to heavenly aid is to arm 
ourselves with the whole armor of God. It is by no 
means requisite that we should bear the trials of life 
with a sullen, insensible state of mind ; nor that we 



SERMON V. 



135 



should call to our assistance allies that have but too 
frequently proved unfaithful in the greatest extremities, 
and given us occasion to lament that our confidence 
was misplaced. It is enough that we endure with pa- 
tience, with the aid of divine strength; enough that we 
breast the storm of calamity with a tranquil and com- 
placent disposition, from the consideration that an all- 
wise and benevolent power directs the blast which 
now beats furiously against us. Religion forms a pro- 
per balance of the sensibilities and affections of the 
heart. It counterpoises the feelings, and allots to all the 
affections their proper range, and directs them to their 
appropriate objects. Where this is not the case, re- 
signation is not real, is not. evangelical. You are not 
commanded to stifle or eradicate the sensibilities of 
your nature. These sensibilities were never so illus- 
triously exercised, never exhibited in so mild and 
amiable a form, as in him whom you are to copy as 
the highest model of resignation. He could feel, he 
could suffer, he could plead, — £ If it be possible let this 
cup pass from me.' Religion would not that outrage 
and violence should be committed upon human na- 
ture. But when nature faints, when she is ready to 
retire from the conflict, when the exclamation, ' My 
flesh and my heart fail me,' trembles upon her lips ; 
it is then that reason, grasping the holy truths of reve- 
lation, becomes invigorated, and, anticipating the victo- 
ry, humbly breathes this devout sentiment, — C I can do 
all things, through Christ who strength eneth me.' <I 
am afflicted, but not in despair ; cast down, but not de- 



136 



SERMON V. 



stroyed. 5 Resignation is nothing other than an entire 
acquiescence in the will of God in all things, and es- 
pecially in adverse dispensations of providence. It is 
a cordial submission of the will of man to the will of 
God. You will mistake me, my friends, by supposing 
that I consider a resigned temper as a passive state of 
the soul. I have endeavored in part to guard against 
this misconception ; and I now urge the argument, 
that the mind is never more active than in resignation. 
Prayer, faith, hope, watchfulness, indicate mental ex- 
ercise, and suppose an engagedness of every power of 
the soul. Merely to receive a resigned disposition is 
not all that is necessary ; when obtained, it must be 
preserved and nurtured with incessant care. To do 
both the one and the other requires mental action. 
Besides, we have to consider the things which consti- 
tute this disposition. Confidence enters into its char- 
acter. But to confide and trust in another presupposes 
a knowledge of him in whom we confide, and know- 
ledge is the result of reflection, comparison and study. 
A blind confidence holds no nearer relation to religion, 
than that composure which we call indifference, or that 
resignation which we have denominated insensibility. 
The climax of the Christian character is completed by 
a combination of graces, among which knowledge is 
exceedingly conspicuous. 'I know in whom I have 
believed,' is the appropriate motto of the resigned 
heart. 

II. These reflections lead us to show, in the second 
place, on what resignation is founded. The existence, 



SERMON V, 



137 



acknowledged attributes, and revealed promises of God, 
are the sources from which alone this heavenly temper 
can spring. In proportion as our knowledge of them 
is correct and thorough, so is our resignation well 
grounded and firm. If fickle chance or blind fate is 
the only God, if he presides over the destinies of the 
universe, if we fall into annihilation at death, if, like 
the poor foundling, we are left ignorant of our origin, if 
all hope sinks in the tomb, then indeed we have but a 
poor means of consoling ourselves under affliction, of 
shielding our hearts from terror, of preserving our com- 
posure amid the storm of private or public calamity. 
Or if we believe in a God of untiring cruelty and un- 
forgiving vengeance, who builds his glory and the happi- 
ness of his favorites upon the sufferings of millions of 
his creatures, what consolation have we when disaster 
and death stare us in the face ? For ourselves, what- 
ever we may profess, how can we be certain that we 
are among the number who are destined to enjoy the 
everlasting smiles of heaven ? Satan, we are told, is 
capable of transforming himself into an angel of light ; 
and the human heart, we know, is deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked ; how then can we ra- 
tionally have any thing like a full assurance that we 
shall escape that wrath which is prepared for countless 
myriads of our race ? The best Christians tell us of 
their fears in regard to their own good estate ; but a 
doubt whether we are every instant liable to sink into 
everlasting flames, is no trifling matter. 

But if we are ever so well assured of our own safety, 

12 



138 



SERMON V. 



what assurance can we have for numbers of our rela- 
tives and friends, for parents, for children, for brothers 
and sisters, for husbands or wives, for objects endeared 
to us by ten thousand ties, when they are snatched 
away from us without leaving behind them the least 
evidence, according to the current orthodoxy of our 
day, that they had secured an interest in Christ. O 
deliver me from such consolation as is presented by 
the pride of philosophy, or by a creed of endless wrath. 

I love to believe with the poet, e that beauty immor- 
tal awakes from the tomb.' I thank my Creator, that 
he neither permits a cold philosophy, which would 
terminate my existence with the grave, nor the fear of 
never-ending misery to disturb my peace. Why trem- 
ble, why despair, because we must walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death ? Can any part of the 
creation of God be indifferent to him — out of his con- 
trol or care ? Can man, man whom he created in his 
own image, ever cease to be the object of his love ? If 
so, why did he give him a mind which could glance 
through the long vista of time, and extend its flight to 
the seats of never-ending felicity ? Why have we this 
ardent hope, amounting to almost positive belief, that 
we shall again rejoin those friends who have been sep- 
arated from us here, and in the abodes of heaven enjoy 
their society with that never-ending pleasure, which 
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man 
conceived? Is this reason, or truth, oris it fiction? 
If there is a Creator of all things, which I think no 
man of common sense can doubt, will he create virtu- 



SERMON V. 



139 



ous hopes, holy expectations, a longing after immortal- 
ity, on purpose to disappoint and annihilate them ? To 
believe this is to impeach his wisdom and goodness. Is 
it not improbable that an all-wise, good and all-powerful 
Being should create an intelligent, thinking, sensitive 
being like man, and then so constitute him that his ex- 
istence shall be a curse to him ? Yet this must be the 
case, if we eventually suffer more than we enjoy. 

The experience of every day, the vast scenery of 
nature, and the luminous pages of inspiration unite in 
teaching us that God is good. His goodness too is 
over all. No being however insignificant but enjoys 
the smiles, experiences the blessings and partakes the 
mercy of propitious heaven. The Lord is good unto 
all and his tender mercies are over all his works. We 
cannot go where universal love smiles not around ; 
where heaven is not crowning with good the whole 
created intelligence, where abides a solitary soul desti- 
tute of a pledge of Jehovah's love. 

If we retrace the devious walks of life, we shall see 
that the arms of divine mercy have encircled, and the 
bosom of divine goodness has borne us from the first 
moment of our existence, and that our wants have 
been supplied by the munificent hand of God. If we 
look to the heavens, we behold expressions of bound- 
less goodness. They perpetually exhibit the most 
perfect wisdom and matchless glory. Every part 
bears the sacred impression of its Maker's love. Eve- 
ry rising and setting sun, and every twinkling star that 
adorns the evening sky is convincing evidence of God's 



s 

140 



SERMON V. 



mindfulness for man, and a demonstration of his regard 
for the well-being of his creatures. If we turn to the 
Bible, we there learn the benevolence of its Author. 
It speaks in accordance with the works of creation, and 
the bounties of nature. Their voices are one and the 
same, in testifying that God alone is all-wise, all-pow- 
erful, and supremely good. All teach that he is love, 
that the compassion and kindness of a father, the ten- 
derness and affection of a mother are but faint emblems 
to illustrate his goodness. All teach that God is our 
Father; that he beholds us with tendercompassion and 
love ; that he supports and upholds us by his power, 
provides for us by his bounty, and watches over us 
with constant attention and care ; that his loving kind- 
nesses are daily renewed to us, and his mercies never 
fail ; that he doth not willingly grieve and afflict the 
children of men ; that he will not be always wroth, for 
the spirits should fail before him and the souls that 
he hath made ; that his anger endureth for a moment, 
and that in his loving favor is life ; that whom the 
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
whom he receiveth ; that he is good and his mercy en- 
dureth forever ; that he loves us better than any earth- 
ly parent can love his children ; yea, that even though 
a mother should forget her sucking child, and not have 
compassion on the son of her womb, yet he will not 
forget us, that he should not have compassion on us. 
It is a knowledge of this character in God, it is a sense 
that in him exists an infinite wisdom that knows what 
is best for his creatures, it is a sense of this goodness 



SERMON V. 



141 



that is always in every dispensation seeking the great- 
est ultimate good of his universe, it is a sense of that 
almighty power that controls all events in accordance 
with the dictates of a wisdom that never errs and a 
benevolence that never fails ; — it is a sense of 
the existence of this character and of this attribute in 
the Deity, that lays the foundation of our resignation 
to his will. 

With such views of God may we not ever be ready 
to exclaim, even in seasons of the greatest terror and 
bitterest adversity, with our blessed Lord, The cup 
which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? 
The sentiment here expressed will bear reiterated re- 
mark, without incurring the charge of making useless 
repetition. What an artless pathos, what an unde- 
signed eloquence lives and glows in every word ! In 
particular, with what inimitable delicacy and with what 
beautiful simplicity is the thought introduced and ex- 
pressed which refers the bitter cup of affliction to the 
hand of Almighty goodness — ' The cup which my 
Father hath given me.' Have you known, have you 
considered in hours of despondency, when the waves 
and billows of sorrow were rolling over you, whose 
agency has cast you into the deep waters ? If not, 
know that your Father and your God hath done this ; 
and that, when the floods lifted up their voice, he was 
present, establishing limits to the surge, and declaring 
— f when thou passest through the waters, I will be 
with thee.' Has the cup of sorrow been put into your 
hand, and have you hesitated or repined ? Then learn 

12* 



142 



SERMON V. 



that your heavenly Father mingles the wormwood and 
the gall ; that therefore the draught is not noxious ; it 
has a mixture of mercy, and if it be not food, it is med- 
icine which will produce the most salutary effects. 
Learn then the duty of Christian Resignation, by re- 
ferring all to the greatest and best of beings, by throw- 
ing every care and anxiety upon him who careth for 
you. 

When man had sinned, when the stars had fallen 
from the religious firmament, when the mind which 
was created in the divine image had become darkened, 
depraved, its moral beauty and worth hidden by cor- 
ruption and wickedness; when all human prospects 
were dark as eternal night ; when death, which to the 
bewildered imagination swept away every fond delight, 
pleasing hope, and tender comfort, presented aspects 
appalling and terrifHc, and darkness brooded over the 
prospects of futurity ; when no ray of light dawned 
on the night of the grave, and no lingering spirit whis- 
pered the intelligence of eternal life and glory ; then 
God, in consequence of the free and unpurchased love 
he bore to man, made provision for sending his Son di- 
vinely qualified to unbosom the divine nature, show us 
what is good, chase the darkness from the human in- 
tellect, and unfold to the mental vision the glories and 
realities of that world, where the purified spirits of 
mankind shall unite in ascribing to him glory and hon- 
or and power. Let it, then, be imprinted upon our 
minds, let it be deeply written on our hearts, that God 
is our Father, and a God of consolation. 



SERMON V. 



143 



May we never be so unwise as to doubt that, wheth- 
er in prosperity or calamity, Thou wilt ever exercise a 
fatherly kindness towards us. God of mercy, may we 
never, never be left to believe that thou wilt forget or 
forsake thine offspring or cast them forever from thine 
affection. Let us ever ascribe whatever good we re- 
ceive, light we enjoy, or hope we cherish, to the good- 
ness of our Creator, and let us in all events and under 
all circumstances trust in the Lord and do good. Yes, 
fathers and mothers whose children are locked in the 
arms of death — children whose parents sleep in the 
darkness of the tomb — widowed husbands and wives 
whose companions have mouldered to dust, are invited 
to look to the goodness of God, and rejoice that the 
Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. 



SERMON 



VI. 



ON COPYING THE CHARACTER OF GOD, OUR FATHER. 

Matth. v. 48. 4 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
Tvhich is in heaven is perfect.' 

In accommodation to human conceptions, the Su- 
preme Being is often in the sacred writings portrayed 
in the likeness of human characters. The titles, King, 
Judge, and other appellations of offices and attributes 
common among men, are applied to God. Though 
such modes of describing him are necessarily imperfect, 
yet they are doubtless the best which the nature of the 
case will allow of for conveying to men's minds vivid 
and touching impressions of the Deity. But of all the 
characters in which the Creator is held forth to the 
veneration and love of his creatures, no one is so full 
and interesting as that employed by our Savior in the 
text, the character of a Father. The mind is at once 
directed to all those tender and endearing scenes which 
are wont to transpire beneath the paternal roof. The 



146 



SERMON VI. 



smile of parental complacency, the earnest look of 
deep affection, the plans of parental wisdom, the allot- 
ments of parental prudence, the judicious precepts of a 
father's law, the restrictions of parental authority, and 
the force of parental example, all rush upon our 
thoughts and feelings at the mention of that endearing 
word, Father. A character thus associated with our 
earliest recollections, and twined around our hearts 
by the closest ties, must be well understood and tho- 
roughly comprehended by us. We all know what 
affections and duties are embraced in the relationship 
between the parent and child. We all feel what is 
the proper character of a father. We can all readily 
conceive what is implied in the expressions, a good 
father, a perfect father. Christianity then with great 
propriety avails itself of this figure, as a singularly 
appropriate one under which to impress on our minds 
just representations of God and win our hearts to his 
love and service. It is as a guide for our imitation 
that Jesus places before us the Supreme Being in the 
paternal character. c Be ye therefore perfect, even as 
your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' In an 
humble attempt to bring forth the important sentiment 
couched beneath this short and simple sentence, and 
lay its vast import comprehensively before you, it will 
be my object, first, to illustrate the Paternal character 
of God ; and secondly, to show that this character lies 
at the foundation of man's spiritual perfection. 

I. I am first to illustrate the paternal character of God. 
Why in the Christian scriptures is God represented to 
us in the similitude of a Father ? 



SERMON VI. 



147 



I reply, first, God is appropriately called our Father, 
because he is to all of us the giver of life and the former 
of our bodies, and the communicator to us of a spirit- 
ual nature bearing a likeness to his own and created 
after his own image. Thus it is declared, that God 
made man after his own likeness, that he breathed 
into him the breath of life, that he made him a little 
lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and 
honor. Thus Paul, recognizing the Almighty as the 
universal Father, says, he hath made of one blood all 
nations of men, and that we are the offspring of God, 
that he is the Father of our spirits to whom we ought 
to be in subjection. God then is our Father by 
creation. 

He is, secondly, our Father by preserving us in 
being. The tender infant, if thrown off from the pa- 
rent's arms uncherished, would not more certainly per- 
ish than would every human being were the continual 
agencies of divine power for one moment withdrawn. 
It is the Lord, e who' (in the language of scripture) 
' holdeth our souls in life, who suffereth not our feet 
to be moved, who giveth his angels charge concerning 
us, to keep us in all our ways, who hath delivered our 
souls from death, our eyes from tears and our feet from 
falling.' 

He is then our Father by preservation, by fully ex- 
ercising towards us an office of which the protection of 
an earthly parent in regard to its child is a faint image. 

Thirdly, God displays to us the character of a Fath- 
er in the allotments of his providence. A wise and 



148 



SERMON VI. 



affectionate earthly Father consults the best good of 
his whole family. He never plots the ruin of a por- 
tion of his children to manifest his own power, to shed 
glory upon his justice, or in any way to aggrandize 
himself. He never places one child in a situation 
which he is certain will ensure his ruin, to benefit anoth- 
er child for whom he has conceived a strong partiality. 
No ; he makes his glory to consist in advancing the in- 
terests of his family, and he conducts himself toward 
all of his children in accordance with the dictates of 
impartial love. He may lay out indeed very different 
courses of life to them, and be various in the distribu- 
tion of his favors, according to the ages, constitutions, 
capacities and dispositions of his children. But in all 
his allotments he is guided by an aim to promote the 
greatest possible amount of ultimate good to every 
member of his family. In a word, a good father is an 
impartial father. The common feelings of mankind 
lead them to reproach, neglect or cruelty towards a 
child, or any exhibition of parental partiality — God is 
impartial in his allotments. He has indeed given dif- 
ferent capacities and assigned different stations to 
men ; but the whole plan of his government, when re- 
garded in reference to final results, must be consistent 
with the declaration — ' He is good to all, and his tender 
mercies are over all his works.' I know opinions at 
war with this sentiment have prevailed. I know it 
has been said that God consigns millions of his crea- 
tures to eternal woe to promote his own glory. But 
how can we believe in, still more, how can we honor 



SERMON YI. 



149 



a Being who has a glory dependent on the ceaseless 
sufferings of millions and millions of creatures whom 
from unoffending nonenity he has brought into exist- 
ence ? 

God then exhibits the character of a Father in the 
allotments of his providence. 

Fourthly, God exhibits the parental character in 
the requirements and prohibitions of his laws. It is 
the part of a good earthly Father to require of his chil- 
dren nothing but what it is in their power to obey, 
and nothing but what he sees it will be for their true 
interest to perform. He would have them treat him 
with becoming respect and submission. He would 
forbid them to do what he saw was productive of mis- 
chief to themselves. He would have them conduct 
uprightly toward one another, and live in harmony to- 
gether. Now if you will examine the law of God, you 
will discover that it is based on similar principles. Of 
our duty toward him this is the sum — ( Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' 
Now this is all reasonable and just. It is for our high- 
est glory and happiness to love what is infinitely good, 
and to serve the Author of our being and the dispenser 
of all our blessings. He requires of us temperance, 
moderation, sobriety. 

To obey him in these respects is manifestly for our 
own benefit, for the good of our health, property, res- 
pectability, self-respect, peace of mind and general 
welfare ; and to disobey him in these respects, the ex- 
perience or observation of every day will teach us is 

13 



150 



SERMON VI. 



essentially to injure ourselves. He requires us, as it con- 
cerns our duty to our fellow men, to do justly, to show 
mercy, to follow peace with all men, every one to 
mind his own business, and not intermeddle with that 
of others, to conduct as good neighbors and as good 
citizens, to be subject to the powers that be, and to 
pray for those in authority. 

In fine, the sum of our relative duties is to do to 
others as we would that they should do to us, as we 
ought to wish and expect a conscientious good man in 
like circumstances to do to us. 

Now to shape our conduct in conformity to these 
principles is doubtless for our best good in this world 
as well as in the next, for our happiness and prosperity 
as individuals, and for our welfare and peace as a com- 
munity ; and the whole observation of life will admon- 
ish us of the injury and misery produced by a course 
of conduct in opposition to these precepts. 

God then exhibits the parental character in the re- 
quirements and prohibitions of his law. 

Fifthly, God exhibits the paternal character in his 
rewards and punishments. A good earthly father is 
impartial in rewarding the good and punishing the evil 
done by his children. He does not give one child an 
immense estate as the reward of a slight degree of 
merit, overlooking altogether his faults, and at the 
same time disinheriting and consigning to ruin another 
child, for a few faults, overlooking all his virtues. 
No ; but he is equal and impartial in respect to the 
distributions of his justice. Now if you will leave hu- 



SERMON VI. 



151 



man creeds out of the question, and take the Bible for 
your standard, you will find that the Father of us all 
acts on precisely the same principles. There we are 
taught that whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap ' t 
that every seed shall have its own body that he will 
give to every one according to his ways and the fruit 
of his doings y that God is no respecter of persons ; 
and that the wisdom from above is without partiality. 
From these and a multitude of other corresponding 
passages we learn that every man, whether converted 
or unconverted, is to be rewarded according to his 
ways ; that misery is the natural product of sin, and 
happiness that of virtue, just as the stalk and fruit and 
blossom are the product of the seed. From such re- 
presentations we do not learn that one sinner, though 
cut off in the bloom of youth,, without having been re- 
generated, will be consigned,, as the fruit of fifteen or 
twenty years of sin, to a. whole eternity of inexpressible 
tortures, whilst another sinner, who has grown gray in 
the vilest wickedness^ by a tardy repentance is recom- 
pensed with an exemption from all suffering, and the 
enjoyment of a whole eternity of bliss. No ; but with 
God every man is to be rewarded according to his 
deeds. 

God then exhibits the parental character in the dis- 
tribution of rewards and punishments./ 

Our subject leads us to discover, in the last place,, 
that God is paternal in his examples. We all know 
and feel that it is the part of a good earthly father so 
to conduct himself in the view of his children as to fur- 



152 



SERMON VL 



nish them in his own example with a correct pattern 
to imitate. The remark is trite, that example goes 
farther than precept. We all startle at the absurdity 
of a parent's correcting his children for indulgences of 
the passions of which he is himself notoriously guilty. 
We could not honor such a father. We should feel 
that he was wanting in one of the most essential char- 
acteristics of a good parent. Now if we should dis- 
cover that the supreme Being carried on a system of 
conduct in direct opposition to what he requires of his 
creatures, it would be a source of infinite regrets The 
discovery must destroy all our confidence in him, all 
our veneration for him. If, whilst he was forbidding 
anger and severely punishing revenge, cruelty and all 
the exercises of malevolent feelings in his creatures, it 
should be found that he was continually exercising the 
same passions, it would be impossible for us to love 
and venerate him. We should condemn ourselves 
were we to be guilty of such inconsistency, and we are 
always sure to hate in another that for which we re- 
proach ourselves. We learn however from our text and 
from the connection in which it stands, as well as from 
many other scriptures,.that Jehovah presents himself as a 
perfect pattern for ourimitation. We are there command- 
ed to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do 
good to them that hate us, and pray for them that de- 
spitefully use us and persecute us, that we may be the 
children of our Father who is in heaven. We are ex- 
horted to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is 
perfect. By all of which it is plain that God is the 



SERMON VI.. 



153 



standard of perfection which we in all respects are re- 
quired to imitate. 

Now if God has any enemy whom he does not love, 
any curser whom he does not bless, then it is plain we 
not only have a right to hate our enemies, but that we 
are required to do so, in order to be perfect as our Fa- 
ther in heaven is perfect, in order to imitate and re- 
semble him. To suppose the contrary would be to 
suppose that the Deity was contradicting himself. 

God must be all that he requires his creatures to be ; 
he possesses no disposition which he condemns in his 
creatures; he does no act which he would disallow in 
them. It is evident that God loves and blesses his en- 
emies, for he requires us to do so. If then he brings 
evils upon transgressors, it is because he knows that 
they have rendered these evils the only effectual means 
of correcting them. And thus God blesses both his 
friends and his enemies, even when he afflicts them 
with, those evils which his wisdom discovers will be for 
their ultimate good. God then is in all respects a safe 
pattern for our imitation, and therefore perfectly pa- 
rental in his examples. 

II. Such is the hasty delineation I have been able to 
set before you, my courteous audience, in illustration of 
the paternal character of God. Leaving this topic, I 
proceed to show in a very concise manner,, that correct 
views of this character in our Creator lie at the foun- 
dation of man's spiritual perfection. They lie at the 
foundation of piety. In order to love and honor God, 
man must be able to discover in him such principles 
13* 



154 



SERMON VI. 



only as demand his affection and respect. Were he to 
ascribe to God feelings of which he himself would be 
ashamed, purposes which his conscience would con- 
demn in himself,, conduct which would fill his soul with 
remorse, it is a plain case that he could not honor 
him. He might indeed be induced by fear to pay 
outward homage, lip-service, but not heart-service. He 
might through fear of an all-devouring vengeance make 
himself believe that he loved a being whom in his 
dealings with his fellow men he would blush to imi- 
tate. But the fact that he, in the management of his 
household concerns and in his intercourse with his 
neighbors, does not act on the principles he ascribes to 
God, proves that he does not honor those principles, 
and therefore that he does not honor the being to whom 
he attributes them. If he paid sincere worship, he 
would shape his own conduct after the conduct of the 
being he professes to worship. All men understand 
what is good and lovely in a father's character. It is 
easy to admire and love what is good and lovely. All 
men understand what is deserving of condemnation in 
a father's character. 

It were horrid, it were unspeakably odious for men 
by any bribes or any terrors to be so overawed as to 
fall down and worship the principle of evil. Bad as 
men are, it is not in their nature to esteem such a prin- 
ciple. Corrupt men esteem the virtuous. From the 
heart to honor a bad being, however great his pow 7 er,. 
or gorgeous his pomp and titles, is an utter impossibil- 
ity ; and if it were a possibility it would be a crime. 



SERMON VI. 



155 



Bat not only is a correct impression of God's paternal 
character the source of all love and true worship, but 
also of all salutary fear. ' The fear of the Lord,' we 
are told, 1 is the beginning of wisdom ;' and again, f The 
fear of the Lord is to hate iniquity.' — This is the only 
fear by which we can honor God. We are all sensible 
of the vast difference there is in the character and in- 
fluence of that fear which a conscientious child has to 
disobey a wise and good father's law, and thereby draw 
down upon himself his just displeasure ; and the wretch- 
ed fear of a cringing, eye-serving, slave, whose only 
dread is of the master's lash, whose great care is to 
keep clear, not of disobedience, but of detection and 
stripes. The fear of the one is virtuous and ennobling, 
that of the other is base and degrading. I apprehend 
there is altogether too much in the common represen- 
tations of the Divine character to produce this servile, 
soul-debasing fear. Horrid pictures of the Deity, 
high-wrought scenes of divine wrath and human suf- 
fering may scare the sinner, but can never effect a rad- 
ical change in the moral character of his affection. 
No sinner ever loved God till ho was brought to regard 
him as his Father and Friend. All the details of re- 
ligious experience go to establish the propriety of this 
remark. 

I would have men fear God. I would have them 
fear above every thing to draw down upon themselves the 
frown of his retributive justice. But I would have that 
fear to be the hatred of iniquity, the fear of dishonoring 



156 



SERMON VT. 



their own natures, of warring against God's goodness, 
the fear of the child, and not that of the slave. 

Correct views of the paternal character of God are 
important to our morality. Let me know the God of 
a man's affections, and I will readily unfold to you the 
general character of his feelings and conduct towards 
his fellow men. To commune with goodness serves 
to make the heart good and the life lovely. To asso- 
ciate in our minds principles of evil with the object of 
Supreme adoration serves to freeze up the heart, and 
render the life malignant, stern and persecuting. In 
heathen lands, you will find the worshippers of unchaste 
divinities, themselves debauched — of revengeful mon- 
sters, themselves cruel — of unmerciful tyrants, them- 
selves despotic. Similar effects in Christian countries 
result from false views of the Creator. The religious 
bigot is nearly always with his fellow men unrelenting 
and oppressive. The more our conceptions of God 
are purified, the more pure will become our hearts. 
The more we love and worship what is amiable, kind, 
compassionate, benevolent and lovely in him, the more 
shall we be like him ; the more we commune with such 
perfection, the more perfect will our own hearts and 
lives be gradually rendered. And thus the nearer shall 
we advance to a compliance with the exhortation of 
our Divine Master, 1 Be ye therefore perfect, even as 
your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' Let it 
then, my friends, be the great end produced by all our 
religious reflections, to render us in moral character like 
our Father in heaven, to induce us to be what we ad- 



SERMON VI. 



157 



mire in God, to feel what we approve in him, to for- 
sake what he condemns, and to follow what he enjoins. 
Thus shall we most effectually secure the true enjoy- 
ment of this life, and fit ourselves for a purer holiness, 
:md a more substantial bliss in the world to cornea. 



SERMON VII. 



ON THE PROPER MANNER OF PREACHING. 

Matth. v. 2. « And he opened his mouth and taught thera 3 
saying'— 

With these few and simple words, the Evangelist 
introduces that memorable sermon of our Savior, de- 
livered to an assembled multitude from the mount. I 
have selected it as a suitable motto for some generai 
views of the true ends and proper manner of Christian 
teaching. 

Why did Christ teach, and why has he left a com- 
mission to others to teach in his name? What is the 
leading aim of promulgating and enforcing the Chris- 
tian religion ? 

To these interrogatories I reply, in the first place, 
that the proper object of Christian teaching is to make 
men wiser; to instruct and inform them in relation to 
the most interesting and momentous subjects. 

Christ came to a world darkened by ignorance, er- 
ror and sin, to shed abroad the light of religious truth, 
to teach man the being, the perfections and the will of 
God, to show what relations he sustains to his crea- 



160 



SERMON VII. 



tares, and in what relation they stand to him, to inform 
them of the services which he requires of them, to in- 
struct them in piety and morality, to convince them of 
their immortality and responsibleness for their conduct 
to a higher tribunal than that of man, to exhibit before 
them the rewards of goodness and the recompense of 
wrong-doing, to show them what secret thoughts they 
may indulge and what they must discard, what affec- 
tions they must form and foster and what dispositions 
they must reject, what rule of conduct they must fol- 
low and what precepts and examples of men they 
must abandon. By thus enlightening their under- 
standings, he came to make men better, to improve 
their moral virtue, to incite them to piety towards 
God, and to justice and benevolence towards man. 
And thus by rendering men wiser and better, Jesus came 
to make them happier; happier in this world, and hap- 
pier in the next. Yes, the Gospel in its true charac- 
ter is an agent to promote the felicity of man. 

By the views it brings to the soul of the universal 
Father, of his wisdom, goodness, power and watchful 
providence, it is a minister of consolation to cheer us 
and support our drooping spirits, amid the various ills 
that are connected with our present being. By im- 
planting and nourishing in our hearts the soft and amia- 
ble virtues, and eradicating from them malevolent tem- 
pers and feelings, Christianity spreads light and sun- 
shine, calmness and tranquillity over the soul that is 
open to her heavenly influences. By teaching us 
that our true happiness lies within our own breasts, 



SERMON vn. 



161 



that it consists in what we are, rather than in what we 
have, and that the purification of our souls is of more 
consequence than all outward goods, she enables us to 
diminish or dismiss many corroding anxieties, to sup- 
port with firmness many outward calamities. She en- 
ables us, so far as we improve her practical instructions, 
to encounter danger and to meet even the terrors of 
death without dismay. Finally, by inducing us to cul- 
tivate inward purity and its consequent happiness on 
earth, she renders us fitted for the immaculate purity 
and unalloyed felicity of a future and an eternal 
world. 

These are the great objects for which Christianity was 
given ; to improve the moral conduct of mankind, to make 
them wiser and better and happier, and thus to fit them 
for the right use and enjoyment of this world and for 
the imperishable perfection of the next. And are not 
these objects of sufficient magnitude to justify a special 
revelation from God ? Were they not worthy of the 
divine mission and labors and miracles, teachings and 
example and suffering of Jesus ? The human soul is 
the noblest work of God on earth. It is the image of 
himself, for God is a soul, a mind, a moral intelligence, 
the spirit of the material universe, bearing a relation to 
and directing by his will all the operations of outward 
nature, in a manner not unlike the power which the 
immaterial will of man exerts over the motions of the 
body in which it resides. Vast and complicated ar- 
rangements of divine wisdom and power are manifested 
in bringing matter from its simple elements and grosser 

14 



162 



SERMON VII. 



combinations into its most symmetrical or useful forms. 
But what is the whole universe of matter — what are 
all the pearls of the deep, the ores and jewels and dia- 
monds of the mine, the majesty of mountains, the 
beauty of valleys, the grandeur of the ocean, the mag- 
nificence of the sun and the moon and all the stars of 
heaven — what is the value of them all in comparison 
with that of a single immortal mind, of a thinking, ra- 
tional, moral intelligence, that in one instant, by the 
slightest exertion of its incomprehensible powers, can 
send its thoughts with more rapidity than lightning, 
through all the regions of visible nature, that can live 
in the past and in the future, that can elevate its con- 
templations from earth to heaven, and bind its affections 
and hopes and expectations to the throne of God, and 
that is destined to outlive the ruins of worlds and to 
triumph over the conquests of time ? What in nature 
is to compare in grandeur and importance with mind ? 
And is not the production of this incomprehensible and 
glorious object the greatest of all miracles ? 

Ought we not to believe that the perfection of this 
most splendid of all God's works on earth should be 
the great end to which every thing else around is made 
to conspire ? Yes, the real value of every thing 
around us is to be measured by the influence it exerts 
to promote the perfection of our souls, to increase the 
sum of our knowledge, our goodness and our happiness. 
All the beauties of nature, all the conveniences of life, 
all our civil and social institutions are to be valued pre- 
cisely as they contribute to these ends. Just so it is 



SERMON VII. 



163 



with religion ; it benefits us just so far as it makes us 
wise and good and happy. That form of religion 
which is best adapted to the promotion of these ends 
is the best. No other moral agent is capable of exer- 
cising so powerful a control over the views, feelings, 
conduct and enjoyments of man as religion. None in 
the healthful use of its influence can do him so much 
good; none in its perversion can render him so narrow- 
minded, depraved and wretched. The history of hu- 
man nature furnishes too full a testimony to the truth 
of this remark to require for it farther illustration. 
True religion, like a wise, benevolent and strong man, 
puts forth a wonderful energy to defend and bless, 
while false religion, like a mad giant, employs its 
strength in demolishing whatever is fair in its path. 

Religion, as a matter of rational instruction and of 
moral culture, is entirely peculiar to Christianity. 
Other religions have had their rites, their solemnities 
and festivals. Their professors have built temples 
and reared altars and offered sacrifices, and allured the 
multitude by pomp and artificial parade, and dismayed 
them by terror. 

But the Bible alone furnishes a religious system 
adapted to inform the human understanding, to purify 
the heart, and properly to regulate the life, At the 
time of our Savior's coming, the original religion of 
Moses and the prophets, which at best, as Paul as- 
sures us, was an imperfect dispensation, had become 
so corrupted that our Lord declared to the Jews — ' Ye 
have made the commandment of God of none effect 



164 



SERMON Vlt. 



by your traditions.' The religious spirit among the 
Jews was at that time perhaps worse than that of the 
surrounding heathen nations ; and in what barbarism, 
superstition and vice the great mass of the Gentile pop- 
ulation were sunk, the historic page gives us but too 
mournful a representation*. Upon the introduction of 
Christianity, a great change for the better was imme- 
diately produced. In the first ages of its propagation, 
wherever it went,, it travelled as a friendly reformer, 
elevating the intelligence, correcting the morals, enliv- 
ening the prospects and ameliorating the general con- 
dition of individuals and of society at large. . Idolatry, 
superstition, idle ceremonies, gross vices, idleness and 
avarice were to a remarkable degree banished, and the 
great body of the primitive Christians were pious, sim- 
ple in their faith and worship, industrious,. contented, 
thankful,, peaceable, generous, pure and benevolent. 
All this you will find to be strictly true, by consulting 
even the history of Gibbon, who certainly cannot be 
suspected of any undue attachment to the gospel, and 
whose authority on this subject is not to be looked 
upon with suspicion. And even the corruptions which 
from various sources have since crept into the Chris- 
tian community have never been able wholly, to nullify, 
the beneficial influence of several of its leading prin- 
ciples ; so that Christianity in its worst forms L regard 
as. far better than any system of religion beside it. 
The nearer we can bring it back to its primitive sim- 
plicity and purity, the more visible will be its blessings. 
But I find myself hurrying down a current of remark 



SERMON tilt. 



165 



quite too desultory for my present purpose. I have 
said that the great ends of Christian teaching were to 
make men wiser,, and better and happier. I proceed 
to show in what manner the gospel must be taught in 
order most effectually to secure these ends. 

It must be taught in a rational manner. The bul- 
warks of reason must be thrown up around the Chris- 
tian cause. It was from behind such ramparts that it 
was so successfully defended in primitive times. Thus 
Paul is said to have reasoned from the scriptures. It 
was his reasoning of temperance, of righteousness, and 
of a judgment to come, that made even Felix tremble- 
Indeed, his writings present a full display of the most 
serious and impressive reasoning. Energetic argument 
was his strong hold. In our times,, when nearly all 
subjects are undergoing the scrutiny of keen and search- 
ing eyes, we are not to rest the authority of religion 
upon mere assertion. We mustf}nd more solid grounds 
on which to build our faith, than mere assumption. 
Religious teaching to be effectual must be religious 
reasoning. 

I would that I could put forth a voice that should 
ring impressively over the whole Christian community 
of the United States, to force this solemn truth upon 
their ears, that in this age and in this country some- 
thing else is demanded by the interests of religion than 
mere declamation, than intimidating exhortings, than the 
glowing picturings of a heated imagination. These 
modes of address may indeed, for a season, fire the mul- 
titude ; they may alarm weak and tender minds ; they 

14* 



16& 



SERMON VH» 



may produce frightful out-pourings of burning passions £ 
they may spread madness over the feelings of the young, 
and the delicate ; they may do now exactly what they 
did hx the Apostles' time, lead children and silly women, 
captive. But they will not produce a firm and durable 
benefit. They will not open the blind eyes of scepti- 
cism ; they will not enable our converts to meet the 
sophistry of infidels : , they will not overcome the doubts 
and prejudices of thinking minds. 

I know it is an easy matter to produce a fervid^ 
temporary excitement of public feeling on any subject. 
I know that an impudent ranter in politics often suc- 
ceeds with the rabble j. while the calm statesman is cried 
into silence ; and I know that things of a like character 
not unfrequently happen in matters of religion. But 
I know too, that in this day of light such triumphs 
must be temporary.. If we would fix permanent con- 
viction,, we must employ intelligible and irresistible 
truth.. What is required of the advocate at the bar?. 
Dare he venture his cause with a learned bench and an 
intelligent jury, upon his mere assertions, upon the. 
earnestness of his entreaties, or upon the flowers of 
rhetoric with which he maintains it? No ; he must 
reason. He must bring forth arguments to show that 
the balance of right and of law lies on his side of 
the question, or, let him assert with never so much im- 
pudence or intreat with never so much ardor, — he 
stands before the eye of judicial, scrutiny as sounding 
brass or a tinkling cymbal. In the senate, or in the 
popular assembly, no lasting, valuable, inclination is 



SERMON VII. 



167 



to be given to the opinions of the intelligent, unless- 
the orator brings up reason for the part he takes. 

In the various departments of science, mere assertion, 
and rant are uot tolerated. The physician is required 
to give reasons for favoring this or that theory ; the 
philosopher is required to give his reasons for the doc- 
trines he avows. In all these cases mere appeals ta 
feeling will not do. 

Tears will not wash away opposing arguments, nor 
will screams nor sepulchral tones force conviction, nor 
will grave looks nor an earnest manner win faith. 

And shall we consent to the importance of reason 
on all ordinary subjects of life, and yet in what con- 
cerns the welfare of our immortal souls are we called 
upon to surrender up that great pilot,, and give our- 
selves to be the sport of every wind of passion that 
comes blustering upon us? Is reason imparted to us. 
as the noblest capacity of the soul, to be our guide in 
every thing else, whilst in this most momentous of all 
concerns, that which affects our eternal destiny, we 
are to throw its admonitions aside,, and trust to casual: 
impulses of feeling ?- O no, my friends, we ought not 
to rest our views of any important truth upon the 
mere word of any man. Jesus, it is true, spoke with, 
authority, but it was the authority of evidence. The 
wonderful works which he did before the people, were 
the grounds on which he elaimed their belief in him. 
It is true that the Christian preacher ought to speak 
with authority, but not with his own, nor yet with that 
of the particular sect to which he belongs. No, but 



168 



SERMON VII* 



with the authority of his master, Christ. But he must 
give reasons to prove that Christ authorizes what he 
teaches, hefore he can la}' claim to our belief in it. 

The gospel then should be preached in a rational 
manner. The evidences on which the authority of 
our religion rests should be often stated frankly and can- 
didly. The several doctrines of the gospel should be 
reasoned upon. Their harmony with common sense 
and with each other should be shown ; objections 
should be fairly removed ; one passage of scripture 
should be honestly compared with others, and our de- 
cision concerning its meaning should be made up in 
reference to its accordance with reason and the general 
strain of scripture. By these means the divine au- 
thority of the gospel will be more solidly and satisfac- 
torily established in men's minds. Doubts and diffi- 
culties will be gradually removed ; Christian faith will 
become more firmly grounded in the understanding ; 
and thus be enabled to put forth a more even, orderly 
and energetic influence over the heart and life. Chris- 
tian hope will be more confidently relied on as an an- 
chor to the soul sure and steadfast, and thus human 
knowledge and virtue and happiness will gradually be 
advanced,, by teaching the gospel, toward that eternal 
perfection which constitutes the glory of the kingdom 
of God. 

The gospel should be preached honestly. He who 
takes it upon him to deliver its great messages to men, 
should sacrifice every other motive and feeling to a 
sincere regard for the truth. He should strive to dis- 



SERMON VII. 



169 



enthral himself from the entanglements of early impres- 
sions, from the biasses of education and the prejudices 
of party, and come to the work of seeking truth at the 
feet of Jesus with a mind thoroughly open to convic- 
tion. He should revere no opinion merely because it 
is old. He should fear none merely because to him it 
is new. He should recollect that the very worst er- 
rors in religion are old, and that almost every thing 
which is now held as important truth has been at one 
time or another cried down as an innovation upon 
something which preceded it. He should remember 
that every discovery in the arts and sciences upon its 
first propagation was an innovation. He should reflect 
that the institution of our own government was at war 
with the political opinions of nearly all the greatest 
statesmen in the world, and was regarded as a most 
daring innovation. He should remember that the doc- 
trines of the reformation were at open hostility with 
the opinions and sentiments which had prevailed over 
Christendom for ages. And he should recollect that 
Jesus himself was the greatest of all innovators^ and 
that the cry against the Apostles was, c These that 
have turned the world upside down have come hither 
also.' With such facts before him, he should throw 
off the influence of human authority, and submit him- 
self only to one master, Christ. He should not begin 
with a creed ready formed, and then go on with a re- 
solute determination to mould the Bible exactly to suit 
its pattern. He should not seek only those passages 
which appear to favor his preconceived views, and pass 



170 



SERMON VII. 



inattentively over what is in direct contradiction to 
them. No ; the honest preacher will examine the 
Bible as a whole. Its broad and general spirit will form 
the rule of his faith. He will compare one passage 
with another, and one portion with another. He will 
discover that some parts are of local and others of gen- 
eral application ; that some parts relate to customs and 
manners peculiar to the age in which the several sa- 
cred writers lived, and that others are applicable to the 
people of all ages. He will discover that the same 
words in different places are employed to express dif- 
ferent meanings ; he will see that in many passages the 
signification is to be determined by the connection in 
which they stand, and in reference to the nature of the 
subject of which they are treating. He will see the 
impropriety of building upon a few isolated texts a 
system opposed by the common sense and the general 
tone of the scriptures. He will not think of giving an 
interpretation to a few texts which would contradict 
the language of the many texts. But in commenting 
upon the Bible he would exercise the same justice that 
he does in interpreting the meaning of any other book. 
If in the works of any writer he should find a few sen- 
tences, the meaning of which is veiled in some ob- 
scurity, he would not think himself doing justice to the 
author, to interpret these few passages in a manner to 
war with the general doctrines and clear illustrations 
of the work. 

Thus he would, like the ancient Apostle, reason from 
the scriptures as a plain, unsophisticated man, and by 



SERMON VII. 



171 



such means he would obtain consistent, clear and set- 
tled views of their general scope and spirit, and be 
enabled to present to his hearers every thing contained 
in them which is at all essential to their instruction, 
to their virtue, to their happiness, — in a word to their 
salvation. 

What he believes he will express ; he will not han- 
dle the word of God deceitfully. He will not ask 
himself whether it is politic, whether it will have a 
good tendency to preach this doctrine or that. So 
that he is assured it is true, he will be also assured 
that God has revealed no truth for the purpose of hav- 
ing it concealed ; that God has revealed no truth which 
it will be injurious to his creatures to know and under- 
stand. This is what I call honest preaching. 

The Gospel to be effectual must be preached boldly. 
Its enemies are to be confronted in a bold, manly, yet 
decorous manner. If the Christian preacher would de- 
fend his religion against the assaults of infidelity, he is 
not to resort to that low ribaldry and indecency with 
which he is occasionally assailed. He is not to resort to 
coarse revilings and vulgar wit, but he is to maintain his 
ground with Christian forbearance, meekness and gen- 
tleness. He is not to pour denunciation and outcry 
against men whom he may regard as sadly immersed 
in error, or even in vice. Still there is a wide distinc- 
tion betwixt Christian courtesy and a cowardly, tame 
and temporising spirit. The Christian pulpit is no 
place for a half Christian and a half infidel. There is 
no such thing as an honest compromising of Christian 



172 sfcRMOft vii. 

truth with the speculations of its adversaries. The 
minister who attempts this betrays his trust. Chris- 
tianity is either every thing that it professes to be, or 
it is one of the blackest impositions that ever was 
palmed upon the world. It purports to be a revela- 
tion from God of the most important truths. It is 
either all this or it is nothing worth. It is on this 
ground that its power over men's hearts and conscien- 
ces lies. Herein consist its sanctions. Truth has 
been taught, duty has been explained and enforced, 
and even the soul's immortality has been argued for, 
by a multitude of men in all ages and countries. 
One philosopher has argued up a system and anoth- 
er has argued it down ; and all was mere fallible hu- 
man opinion. But Christianity comes to us claiming 
to be a message from God, communicating truths of 
the most intense importance. Its authority should 
therefore be set forth in the boldest and clearest terms. 
Not only so; its several doctrines should be exhibited 
in their true character and proper energy. The theo- 
ry of our religion is to be explained and applied, not 
as the conjectures and opinions of mere men, but as the 
authorized doctrine of God. All we have to do on 
this score, is to show that Christ taught such and such 
doctrines, and to illustrate them by whatever we may 
gather from the light of nature. Such propositions re- 
lating to the gospel as are subjects of different opinions, 
such as we find not easily solved, we should discuss in 
a self-difhdent style. As far as we are able to come 
to consistent conclusions respecting them, we should 



SERMON VII. 



173 



show our opinion, and leave our hearers the same lib- 
erty of forming and showing theirs. But the most es- 
sential doctrines of the New Testament, after all, are re- 
cognized by Christians of all sects. That there is one 
God, to whom we are all accountable, and that Jesus 
was sent by him to be the Savior of the world ; that 
we are required to forsake our sins, to cultivate habits 
of inward holiness, to be pure in heart, to exercise 
piety towards God, faith in Jesus Christ, and benevo- 
lence towards our fellow-men ; and that we are to be 
rewarded according to our deeds, and to be raised 
from death, and exist forever beyond the grave, are 
all momentous truths of the gospel, and plain to every 
reader of it, and are abundantly sufficient, if we will 
live accordingly, for our acceptance with God. These 
doctrines in a special manner should be boldly insisted 
on, not as human speculations which may be either 
true or false, not as matters whose authority rests upon 
logical skill, not as what upon the whole seems to form 
a system more likely to be true than that of the Epicu- 
reans or Stoics, not as doctrines which if they should 
turn out to be false can do us no harm to believe, not 
as subjects which true or false are of a nature to make 
men better by their believing them ; — No, they are to 
be urged upon men's hearts as infallible truth delivered 
from the God of heaven. This is what I call bold 
preaching. And if the Gospel is not defended and 
preached in this manner, I would not give a straw 
for all the benefits it will exert on men's hearts and 
lives. If it is not so urged, faith will be faint and dy- 

15 



174 



SERMON VII. 



ing, interest in the Christian cause will decay. No 
strong action of religious principle will be exhibited, 
no supporting hope will be cherished. We are able 
and disposed to reform from sin, to resist and over- 
come temptations, and rise above our doubts and fears 
in regard to our immortal destiny, just so far as we are 
thoroughly convinced that the Gospel is a declaration 
from God. And to produce such a conviction will be 
the unwavering aim of every Christian preacher, who 
is true to the cause he has undertaken to defend. 

The Gospel should be preached plainly. Plain 
truths should be brought forward, and in a plain dress. 
It is one of the peculiar characteristics of the Christian 
religion, that the most exalted lessons of moral wisdom 
are brought down to the comprehension of the most 
humble capacities. Before the coming of Christ, the 
halls of wealth and learning, the academies of science, 
and the courts of princes were the chief theatres in 
which philosophy, arrayed in splendor, exhibited her 
speculations and truths. Moral science and moral cul- 
ture were for the most part confined to the higher class- 
es of the community. The ancient world could boast 
of a few prodigies of intellectual research and of philo- 
sophical refinement ; but the great mass of the people 
were degraded by the most incredible ignorance and 
depravity. But when Christ came, he gave it as a 
proof of his mission that the poor had the gospel 
preached to them. Christianity is wonderfully adapted 
to the level of ordinary minds. It is not the number 
of its doctrines, but their importance ; it is not the ele- 



SERMON VII. 



175 



gance with which they are in the New Testament 
displayed, but it is the authority by which they are 
sealed, that constitutes the great glory of our religion. 
Men who have not the talents nor time to wade through 
the ponderous tomes which burthen the shelves of 
metaphysical learning to find out truth and duty, in 
the New Testament meet with a few leading principles 
of religion, intelligible to every understanding, and to 
be depended upon as the certain truth of God, as a 
sure guide to faith, duty and heaven. 

How sadly, then, do we pervert the design of the 
gospel, when, in professing to teach it, our discourses 
are replete with a multitude of doubtful disputations, 
and nice distinctions, and hair-splitting definitions, and 
curious speculations, which may indeed display our 
learning or ingenuity, but which have no influence to 
make any man's heart purer, or his life better ! And 
how ineffectual must be that preaching which is cloth- 
ed in language above the comprehension of the hearers, 
or ornamented with artificial decorations that serve to 
captivate the fancy, without levelling truth at the heart. 

By these remarks I do not mean that a preacher's 
language should be coarse and vulgar, but I do mean 
that it should be made up of words in common use, 
words, the meaning of which almost every one under- 
stands. 

Nor do I mean that the graces of composition are in 
any respect to be overlooked, or the flights of the im- 
agination to be despised and neglected. On the con- 
trary, the preacher wrongs the community when in his 



176 



SERMON VII. 



addresses he sets before them examples of bad taste 
and careless execution. The more regular is the plan, 
and the more compact is the reasoning, and the more 
bold and strong are the figures of a public discourse, 
the more effect it will produce, the deeper will it drive 
truth into men's hearts, and the more durably engrave 
it on their memories. But that flimsy, power-wanting 
preaching, whose chief commendation is that it is grace- 
ful and flowery and pretty, is perfectly unsuited to 
the dignity and great ends of religious teaching, If 
we wish to make men think, and make them feel be- 
neath our preaching, we must give our subject its ap- 
propriate armor, of a plain, intelligible, direct style of 
address. 

It is one thing to compose a pretty song, and it is 
quite another thing to bring forth a strong and con- 
vincing sermon. For a preacher to weave together a 
tissue of amusing conceits, and fanciful thoughts, and 
pleasant words and phrases and sentences, as a drap- 
ery in which to exhibit the momentous subjects of the 
gospel, is as inappropriate as it would be for an artist to 
represent a Goliath or a Hercules attired in the mus- 
lin and gauze and laces of a fashionable belle. 

There is a plain, intelligible, and yet an eloquent, 
convincing and impressive style and manner, which 
forms the only appropriate vehicle to convey great 
truths to men's hearts. Such is the style and manner 
which the Christian preacher should strive to form, 
cultivate and exhibit. 

The gospel should be taught in a liberal and charita- 



SERMON VII. 



177 



ble spirit. The subject of religion is one of so vast 
and complicated a nature, and the structure of men's 
minds is so various, their capacity so different, and 
the train of influences which has been in the habit 
of acting upon them so diversified, that an ex- 
act uniformity in religious belief is not to be expect- 
ed. Nor is such a uniformity needed, nor does it any 
where exist. You can scarcely find two intelligent 
members of any church whose opinions in all respects 
perfectly harmonize. Men will disagree upon nearly 
all important subjects ; and why should a uniformity 
of opinion, which is scarcely seen to exist upon any 
other subject, be expected in relation to every point 
embraced in so large a book as the Bible ? 

No fallible mortal has a right to prescribe bounds 
for his neighbor's faith. If any one does so he wars 
against the whole tone and spirit of Christianity ; for 
that is a liberal and charitable system ; for that ad- 
dresses him in this emphatic language — ' Who art thou 
that judgest another man's servant? To his own master 
he standeth or falleth.' We ought to reflect that our 
neighbor has no more interest to embrace error than 
ourselves ; that we are fallible as well as he ; that how- 
muchsoever he dares to differ from our opinions, he 
differs no more broadly and importantly from us than 
we take the liberty of differing from him. We ought 
to be willing to allow him the same privilege for deter- 
mining his faith for himself, that we take in deciding 
our faith for ourselves. We ought moreover to reflect 
that there are evidently good as w T ell as bad men in 

15* 



178 



SERMON VII. 



almost every sect and community, and we ought to 
place more esteem and reliance on our neighbor's hab- 
itual practice, than on his professions of faith. 

This charitable temper is to be preserved not 
merely towards members of different denominations of 
professing Christians, but also towards avowed infidels. 
No man believes more firmly in the truth of Chris- 
tianity than I do. No body of Christians have done 
and are doing more, both by their preaching and pub- 
lications, to defend the gospel from attacks than Unita- 
rians. None prize its truths more highly ; none la- 
ment the infidelity of others more deeply ; but this I 
say, we have no right to abuse and vilify and hold up 
to the community as a monster the man who tells us 
honestly that he does not believe in Christianity. We 
are to respect him no less as a man, we are to treat 
him no less kindly on account of his want of faith. If 
he is practically an honest, moral man, he is entitled 
to our respect and esteem, friendship and charity. 
And by so conducting ourselves towards him we shall 
be far more likely to incline his feelings and lead his 
mind to more favorable views of our blessed religion, 
than we shall by showing him that our faith serves to 
make us arrogant, narrow-minded, uncharitable, re- 
proachful, slanderous and persecuting. Preachers are 
forever provoking, by unjustifiable attacks, the very 
worst passions of man against them, and then they are 
mournfully uttering their lamentations over the obsti- 
nacy and rebellious spirit of unbelievers. The only 
successful and authorized weapons of the Christian 



SERMON VII. 



179 



warfare are cool, dispassionate arguments, persuasion, 
I meekness, kindness and charity. We are bound to 
respect, to love, confide in and treat affectionately our 
fellow-men, just in proportion as in their dealings and 
general outward department they are upright, correct ; 
and however much in error as to their speculative re- 
ligious opinion we may regard them, and however anx- 
iously we may desire that they come to what we es- 
teem juster conclusions, we are not harshly to judge 
and censure them. We are to leave the whole matter 
to God who knows their hearts, who understands the 
peculiar structure of their minds, who is well acquaint- 
ed with the whole train of influences which have 
operated to bias their judgments, and who will recom- 
pence them according to their merits. 

Under the influence of such Christian principles, 
the faithful preacher will encourage in his hearers a 
liberal and charitable tone of feeling towards their fel- 
low-men. If he fails to do this, he fails to fulfill a most 
•important portion of his duty. If he takes an opposite 
course, his ministry is a curse and a scourge. It is 
the easiest thing in the world for a preacher to impart 
a bitter, censorious, uncharitable and exclusive spirit 
to his hearers, We see by numberless examples 
around us that the most benevolent and amiable hearts 
can, by the artifices of an illiberal preacher, be so sour- 
ed as to exercise and display the most rancorous sec- 
tarian malevolence. I know not with what eyes a 
minister of Christ can survey the teachings and tem- 
per and whole example of his divine master, and yet 



180 



SERMON VII. 



justify himself in diffusing among those whose confi- 
dence he has won, this horrid, denouncing, persecuting 
spirit. 

I have said that Christian preaching should be 
liberal and charitable. I proceed to say that it should 
be practical. If we would benefit society, if we would 
fulfill the main purposes of the gospel, we must preach 
morality. By morality I do not mean that we are 
only required to abstain from what would draw upon 
us the censure of the community in which we live, 
or subject us to the rigors of human laws ; no, I 
mean Christian morality, the doing of good works be- 
cause it is right that we should do them, and the ab- 
staining from iniquity because it is wrong to practise 
it. By morality I mean a broad, comprehensive virtue 
which will make us just as correct in secret as in pub- 
lic, which will prevent us from doing in the darkness 
of midnight what we should not dare to do in the open 
blaze of noonday ; a morality, that comprehends the 
whole sum of duties which we owe to God, to our- 
selves and to our fellow-men. 

In this broad sense of the expression, Christian 
preaching should be essentially, decidedly and chiefly 
moral preaching. The great truths of the gospel 
should be devoutly, affectionately and earnestly incul- 
cated and enforced. The love of God, the reasonable- 
ness of his requirements ; the authority, example and 
sufferings of Jesus, the hideousness of sin, the beauty 
of virtue, the interests of this life, and the retributions 
of the future world, should all be solemnly and serious- 



SERMON VII. 



181 



ly appealed to, in inducing men to forsake iniquity and 
turn to God and live in conformity to his will. 

I have thus exhibited in a summary form, what I 
regard as the true end and the proper manner of 
Christian teaching. And God grant that all of us may 
receive the truth in the love of it, and be habitual 
doers as well as occasional hearers of the word. May 
we so apply ourselves to the teachings of Christ as 
daily to become, beneath their influence, wiser and 
better and happier, and thus be fitted for the right use 
and enjoyment of this world, and prepared for the 
felicities of heaven. 



SERMON VIII. 



THE DUTY OF MERCY. 

Matth. v. 7. e Blessed are the merciful ; for they shall obtain 
mercy.' 

I propose this morning, Christian friends, to treat of 
that portion of our Lord's sermon on the mount, which 
relates to the duty of mercy. It will be my object, in 
the first place, to exhibit a broad view of the nature 
and operations of this Christian virtue ; secondly, to 
treat of the blessing pronounced upon it ; and, thirdly, 
to give a few hints upon the most effectual man- 
ner of cultivating it. I am first to exhibit a broad 
view of the nature and operations of the virtue com- 
mended in the text. 

What then is Christian mercy ? and how is it man- 
ifested ? 

Christian mercy is the exercise of kindness towards 
those who are in any respect in an evil or unhappy 
condition. It displays itself in a tender sympathy for 
the several objects of compassion, and by doing what 
is in our power to mitigate or remove the evils under 
which they labor. It is a broad and comprehensive 
virtue, which, in a world of weakness, imperfection and 



184 



SERMON VIII. 



suffering like this, has an ample field to range in. 
Every individual of the human family in some way or 
other stands in need of mercy from his fellow-creatures, 
and every one is called upon by many occasions to 
practise it towards others. 

It is to be manifested in our treatment of the brute 
creation. Man is made the lord of the animal tribes, 
not to abuse his dominion over them. He that need- 
lessly sets foot upon a worm, violates a solemn duty. 
Children should be early cautioned against every spe- 
cies of cruelty. Parents and guardians who are accus- 
tomed to see them indulging a cruel disposition towards 
animals, without reproving them, ought to reflect that 
they are acting towards those under their charge a very 
negligent, unmerciful and reprehensible part. They 
are suffering by such negligence the seeds of inhumanity 
to obtain root and acquire growth in the bosoms of 
their children, that may spring forth and ripen into 
great insensibility and cruelty in after life. The man 
too, who overworks the laboring animals, or inflicts on 
them unnecessary pain, is guilty of a great sin. He 
too that amuses himself with the suffering of the brute 
creation, in inhuman sports, violates the duty of mercy 
and will assuredly be called by his God to an account 
for the act. We should be merciful then towards the 
brute creation. 

We are required to be merciful towards our 
fellow-creatures under a great variety of circum- 
stances. All ill-natured or thoughtless remarks up- 
on any natural deformity of person, such as are of 



SERMON VII t* 



185 



& nature to draw ridicule on the important subject of 
them, are opposed to the duty of mercy, and indeed 
are impious reflections upon the Creator, who has 
given to each of us just such a face and form as it 
pleased him to bestow. 

Beauty is an accident for which its possessor can 
claim no merit, and the want of it imputes no fault. 
For this reason^ it may be urged, an individual should 
not suffer his feelings to be painfully excited on ac- 
count of any judgment which is passed upon such of 
his properties as his own agency had no concern in 
producing. However true this may be, we know that 
men cannot avoid regarding their external properties 
as parts of themselves, and that they are in many cases 
almost as painfully affected by the expression of an 
unfavorable opinion concerning these, as they are by 
being charged with immoral practices. 

When our knowledge is thrown into the shade by 
the superior attainments of another person, and our 
standing in the community cast into the back-ground 
by his pre-eminence above us, we are liable to be 
affected by the mean passion of envy, and to commence 
the work of depreciating his merits. It requires vast 
labor to approach very nearly to perfection in any art 
or science, but no industry is requisite to discover the 
want of it in others. There is no great difficulty in 
knowing that our fellow-man falls short of the excel- 
lence to which he aspires, though it might be very 
difficult for us to do as well as he. It is easier to per- 
ceive defects in others than to correct them in our- 

16 



186 



SERMON VIII. 



selves. It is far easier to rear in our minds a standard 
of perfection, and to depreciate the attainments of all 
who do not attain to it, than to reach it ourselve : sand 
hence it is, that we so frequently hear that painter 
called a mere dauber, or that poet a mere rhymer, this 
mechanic a bungler, that orator a declaimer. And 
we are even prone to pronounce upon the most splen- 
did exhibitions of genius and labor, that in many res- 
pects they certainly merit praise, yet that in many 
points they are still so obnoxious, in the eye of a nice 
critic, to censure. 

In the next place, we are called upon to practise 
mercy towards others in respect to their infirmities of 
understanding. Not only actual idiocy, and unequiv- 
ocal insanity, but also those partial disorders of the 
mind which often render individuals miserable in them- 
selves and troublesome to those around them, demand 
the exercise of our tenderness, compassion and sympa- 
thetic efforts, to sootl e and relieve the unfortunate 
subjects of them. Still farther, such persons as are la- 
boring under no derangement of their mental faculties, 
but who yet fall somewhat below the ordinary level of 
intellectual capacity, such as betray uncommon weak- 
ness of perception or dullness of apprehension, are pro- 
per objects of tenderness from those whom nature 
has endued with quicker and sounder understandings. 
The same is true of those who betray a want of pru- 
dence and discretion in the transaction of their ordina- 
ry affairs, or who manifest a very defective sense of 
propriety and judgment in their conversation. Such 



SERMON VIII. 1ST 

persons are the proper subjects of Christian mercy from 
those on whom nature has conferred brighter endow- 
ments of mind. To treat the errors and mistakes into 
which they fall, or the imprudence or weakness into 
which they are betrayed, with sarcasm and ridicule, 
discovers in him who does so, the want of a good head 
and a feeling heart. The sensible and merciful man 
will endeavor, on the other hand, in the most kind and 
affectionate manner to accommodate himself to their 
weaknesses, to rectify their errors, to correct their mis- 
taken apprehensions, and to save their feelings from all 
avoidable mortification. 

Again, it is the part of a Christian who has been 
blessed with superior opportunities for acquiring infor- 
mation, and who thereby possesses enlarged stores of 
knowledge, to treat with great candor and affection 
those whose means of obtaining instruction have been 
fewer, and whose acquirements are consequently more 
limited. Of all sorts of ostentation, a pedantic display 
of learning is the most contemptible. Of all sorts of 
vain glory, that which is manifested in a boasting tri- 
umph over the want of information in others is the 
most unjustifiable. Learning is valuable, just so far as 
it enables us to be useful to ourselves and to our fel- 
low men. The mere possession of it is no criterion of 
merit. Many very stupid, as well as many very bad 
men are yet learned ; whilst many intelligent and good 
persons, labor under the inconveniences of very limit- 
ed possessions of knowledge. You have heard of 
instructed brutes. I have seen men who were called 



188 



SERMON VIII, 



learned, and who were really possessed of astonishing 
funds of information on a great variety of subjects, but 
who nevertheless had talent scarcely above that of these 
animals, and whose acquirements were of nearly as 
little use to society. Such men have scarcely any 
other claim to our esteem for their learning than that 
they have been industrious. We can say of them that 
their time might have been worse employed, that their 
lives might have been more reasonably spent. The 
truly wise man will regard all the acquisitions of his 
mind as of no further importance than as they improve 
his heart and capacitate him for more extended use- 
fulness. 

He will never suffer himself to be bloated into van- 
ity, self-conceit and arrogance. He will value modes- 
ty and charity as the chief gems in the coronet of wis- 
dom. He will look upon an unassuming, affable and 
condescending spirit as the most convincing evidence 
of a great mind. He will make every allowance for 
the absurd opinions and incorrect remarks of the igno- 
rant ; and he will strive to communicate such instruc- 
tion as he shall feel it proper to impart, in a manner 
the best adapted to render it acceptable and efficacious. 

My hearers, we have all, I suppose, conversed with 
men whose great aim it seemed to be to convince us 
how exceedingly wise they were, and how astonish- 
ingly ignorant and weak we were ; and on the other 
hand, we have been called upon to admire the good 
nature and eminent skill of others, who would give us 
a vast deal of information in such a manner that the 



SERMON VIII. 



189 



idea that they conceived themselves in any wise supe- 
rior to us would never enter our minds. Now it is a 
merciful disposition, in one of high acquirements, that 
produces this modest, unassuming, unoppressive and 
inoffensive demeanor. It is the part of the merciful 
man, so to let the light of his mind shine upon oth- 
ers that, like the ray of the sun, it shall fall upon men 
with a soft, cheering and invigorating influence. 

Another branch of the duty commanded in our text 
is, that we should be exceedingly cautious, candid and 
charitable in forming our opinion, and more especially 
in expressing our judgments concerning the talents 
and acquirements of others. We ought to reflect that 
in human nature there is a great diversity of gifts ; that 
whilst one person may display himself to great advan- 
tage in one department, he may be quite inefficient in 
another, and that whilst one man may betray weakness 
in one respect, he may evince much strength in seme 
other respect. We ought to be aware that every 
man, however great in certain spheres, has yet his 
weak side. And we ought not therefore when we 
discover in our fellow-man a few deficiencies, though 
they should even be important ones, hastily to conclude 
that he is alike deficient in every thing. 

We often meet with persons manifestly out of place, 
following avocations for which nature never designed 
them, pursuing with heartlessness callings in no wise 
adapted to the bent of their dispositions, and continual- 
ly thwarted in their aims, because they do not aim at the 
right things ; sinking into despondency, because they 
16* 



190 



SERMON VIII. 



have not devoted their attention to that sphere or tt^e 
for which they are constitutionally fitted. 

Though doubtless the greater part of mankind, in a 
very tolerable degree, can succeed in almost any busi- 
ness they undertake, if they will be as attentive and in- 
dustrious as they ought to be ; yet I doubt not there 
are many instances in which persons are so plainly mis- 
placed in life, that we ought to look with great charity 
and pity upon their mismanagements and failures. 

Another occasion for the exercise of Christian mer- 
cy, is made by the errors of opinion into which we 
believe our fellow-men to have fallen. Different minds 
are constantly manifesting on a variety of ' subjects nu- 
merous differences of judgment and conclusions. On 
no subjects are these differences so apt to swell into 
heated disputes and bitter animosities, as on those of 
politics and religion. And it is deeply to be mourned 
that, in the party strifes which flow from these conflict- 
ing views of doctrines and measures, a most unmerciful 
spirit is so frequently manifested. 

We ought to reflect upon the great number of cir- 
cumstances which operate to incline men's opinions to 
favor this or that view of a subject ; — that we are falli- 
ble as well as he who differs from us ; — that he differs 
no more widely from us, than we do from him; and that 
if he is in a very egregious error, he may be as honest, 
well-meaning and sincere in it, as we are in the indul- 
gence of what we esteem true opinions. Our neighbor 
may advocate with great warmth a system of principles 
and measures in relation to the policy of government, 



SERMON VIII. 



191 



which we think at war with the true interests of the 
commonwealth ; and yet we are not hastily to conclude 
that he is at heart an enemy to his country* We 
ought to be slow in attributing bad motives to him, so 
long as we can conceive that he may possibly be actu- 
ated by good ones. While in a proper manner we 
oppose his sentiments, we ought to be personally char- 
itable towards him. 

Our neighbor may avow with great zeal and ear- 
nestness religious principles and a course of sectarian 
policy which we regard as extremely erroneous, absurd 
and pernicious ; and yet we are not hastily to conclude 
that he is at heart an enemy to the interests of religion. 

We are to recollect that God has given no one of us 
a right to decide for the faith of another, or to extend 
control over his conscience. If we feel certain that he 
is in error, he may feel equally certain that we are mis- 
taken. Or if he does not show himself quite so posi- 
tive that we are in the wrong, perhaps it arises from 
his superior degree of candor, self-diffidence, and mod- 
esty. If we are anxious to bring him to juster views, 
harsh censure, opprobrious epithets, and unqualified 
condemnation are not among the most likely means to 
effect our object. 

The exhibition of a kind, affectionate and merciful 
treatment towards him, will do far more to win his con- 
fidence and enlist his feelings in what we regard as 
truth. And if he remains ever so obstinately attached 
to what we esteem his errors, we are to leave his case 
with God. We are not to manifest an illiberal, un- 



192 



SERMON VIII. 



christian spirit, because we think others embrace erro- 
neous opinions. Especially we are not to misrepresent 
their doctrines, still less to abuse their motives and vil- 
ify their characters. To do so is to violate the duty 
of mercy. 

We are called upon to practise the duty commended 
in our text toward the unhappy defects of temper 
which we occasionally observe in others. We often 
meet with persons so whimsical and peevish, that un- 
less we are peculiarly on our guard, we shall suffer their 
inequalities and faults of temper, to bring up like evils 
in us. But surely it is not the part of a wise man to 
allow his own temper to be ruffled by the inequalities 
of his neighbor's. 

We are called upon for the practice of mercy in our 
treatment of others in respect to their conduct. As to 
acts of decided and open immorality, it would be un- 
merciful to the interests of society to pass them over 
without condemnation. We have no right to encour- 
age men in flagrant violations of virtue. We war 
against our duty to ourselves, our families, our neigh- 
bors, our Savior and our God, when we smile compla- 
cently upon crime, when we flatter men in their vices. 
In doing so, an awful example is set before the rising 
o-eneration. But still there is such a thins; as an over- 
strained severity, such a thing as unmerciful censure 
towards those even who have transgressed some of 
the fundamental principles of social order. 

In forming our opinions of men's wrong actions, we 
should always take into consideration and give due 



SERMON VIII. 



193 



weight to all the palliating circumstances which we can 
believe to have been connected with them. We should 
make proper allowance for the frailties of human na- 
ture. We are not to suppose because a man has 
done one bad thing, that he must necessarily be aban- 
doned to habitual and general vice. We are not to 
condemn a man for a total want of moral principle, be- 
cause in some respects he shows a want of it. We 
are not readily to attribute a bad motive to an appa- 
rently good action, nor are we to condemn even a bad 
action as proceeding from the very worst motive of 
which we can conceive. We are not to show great 
anxiety to make known our neighbor's shame, still less 
to exaggerate it, and spread it abroad in the worst pos- 
sible point of light. We are not to indulge in bitter 
sarcasms and spiteful reproaches upon his improper 
conduct. 

The divine command is, c Thou shalt not hate thy 
neighbor in thy heart, thou shalt, in any wise, reprove 
thy brother and not suffer sin upon him.' If his fault 
has not come to the general knowledge of the world, it 
is your duty to go to him in private, and admonish him 
of his sin c between thee and him,' and do all in your 
power in the most kind and affectionate manner to re- 
claim him, to save him from disgrace and from persist- 
ing in an evil course. If his offence is of a public 
character, while you cannot express approbation of it, 
you are not to load it with exaggerated representations 
of depravity, but, on the contrary, if you are a merciful 
man, you will bring up every circumstance which leads 



194 



SERMON VIII. 



to the most charitable view of the case. Thus remem- 
bering that we all have our faults, we should be mer- 
ciful in regard to those of others. We should bear in 
mind the words of our Savior and his apostle, 1 He that 
is without sin, let him cast the first stone,' and c He that 
thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he fall.' 

Finally, we are called upon for the practice of mer- 
cy towards the poor, the sick and afflicted. In a 
world so full of calamity, and in times so pressing with 
disaster as the present, you need not look abroad for 
objects which require sympathy and aid. How many 
are sinking under infirmities, how many are confined 
in dungeon gloom, e shut from the common air and 
common use of their own limbs,' how many are pining 
beneath the gradual wastings of nature, how many 
are writhing on beds of sickness in the most excruciat- 
ing agonies — how many are suffering for the common 
necessaries of life. How many a lone mother is 
cut to the heart at the cries of her children for bread. 
And these are the distresses of your brethren, my 
Christian friends. Turn not, as you hope for the mer- 
cy of heaven, a deaf ear to their sufferings. Pass them 
not by unnoticed. Imitate the good Samaritan, rather 
than the insensible Levite or the unpitying priest. 
Remember that pure religion and undefiled before God , 
is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflic- 
tion. Believe the assertion of your Savior, 1 It is more 
blessed to give than to receive.' Of all luxuries, pre- 
fer the luxury of doing good, the sweet satisfaction 
arising from a consciousness of being an agent of Al- 



SEHMON VIII. 



195 



mighty God in alleviating the -sufferings, supplying the 
wants, preventing the dangers, and increasing the com- 
forts and enjoyments of your fellow-men, and thus be 
able to exclaim with the good man of old, £ When 
the ear heard me then it blessed me, and when the 
eye saw me it gave witness to me : because I delivered 
the poor that cried, and the fatherless and him that 
had none to help him. The blessing of him that was 
ready to perish came upon me. and I caused the wid- 
ow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and 
it clothed me ; my judgment was a robe and a diadem. 
I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I 
was a father to the fatherless, and the cause which I 
knew not I searched out.' 



196 



SERMON VIII ? 



PRAYER. 

O God, on every side of us we behold the evidence; 
of thy benignity and love, of thy readiness to bless and 
forgive rather than to cause grief and inflict punishment. 
Thine infinite goodness is the broad basis of thine infi- 
nite greatness. The shadow of thy mercy rests upon 
all thy works. O teach us to be practical adorers of 
thee, teach us to express our admiration of thy perfec- 
tions, by cultivating in our own bosoms and manifesting 
in our lives those excellences which we discover and 
rejoice in, in thee. Render us kind, compassionate, 
charitable, merciful and bountiful like thee. 

Thou hast invested man with capacities above those 
of all the other inhabitants of the earth. Thou hast 
made him the lord of this lower world. May none of us 
abuse our dominion over the inferior animals. May 
we treat the helpless brute which thou hast subjected 
to our control, with kindness and mercy. May we 
not be guilty of inflicting unnecessary pain upon the 
humble animal that toils for us, or looks up to us, as in 
conscious dependence for subsistence and compassion- 
ate care. And in regard to our fellow-creatures of the 
human family, since thou hast seen fit to distribute 
among them various allotments and stations in life, and 
a diversity of capacities according as thou hast discov- 
ered that the greatest amount of individual happiness 
and of the general welfare might be best promoted, — ■ 
may each of us exercise that mercy and candor and 



SERMON VIII. 



197 



gentleness which is due to all. Save the master from 
abusing his power over the servant ; save the parent 
from tyranny towards his child ; save the husband 
from coldness and cruelty towards the tender and more 
defenceless partner of his bosom ; save the man of 
wealth from oppressing the poor ; save the man of pub- 
lic office from misusing the influence and power which 
belong to his station ; save the wise man from taking 
indue advantage of the ignorance, errors, or follies of 
m'is less informed or less gifted neighbor ; save the 
cool, dispassionate man from triumphing over the de- 
fects of a warm, hasty temper in others; save us all 
from an uncharitable judgment of our fellow-men ; save 
the politician from misrepresenting and vilifying his 
opponent ; save the religionist from a narrow, sectarian 
spirit : save the man of good character from all avoid- 
able harshness and severity of opinion and conduct to- 
wards his erring fellow-men. Save us all from the 
poisonous breath and the deadly pang of detraction and 
slander. Save us all from being busy bodies in other 
men's matters. May each one of us earn his own 
bread honestly and eat it in quietness. May we study 
the things that make for peace. May we not be weary 
in well doing. And in each of the several relations of 
life may we be careful to do as little harm as possible, 
and all the good in our power. So may we live to- 
gether as one great household of brethren and sisters, 
acknowledging thee as our Father, and Jesus as our 
:;lder brother and Lord, bearing one another's burdens^ 
and so fulfilling the laws of Christ. 
17 



SERMON IX. 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 

Romans ix. 14—24. « What shall we say then ? Is there un- 
righteousness with God ? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I 
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have 
compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not 
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that show- 
eth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this 
same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power 
in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the 
earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, 
and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, 
Why doth he yet find fault ? For who hath resisted his will ? 
Nay, but 0 man, who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall 
the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made 
me thus ? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same 
lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor ? 
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power 
known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath 
fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches 
of glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared un- 
to glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but 
also of the Gentiles ?' 

Perhaps no portion of the holy scriptures has been 
perverted to a more unholy use than that contained in 
the words I have just read. The expressions of Paul 
in the text and context, have been eagerly seized and 
laid down to form a base on which to rear a theological 
hypothesis of partial, restricted mercy, and infinite, in- 
exorable wrath. They have been used as a pedestal 



200 



SERMON IX. 



to support a giant system whose influence has been 
felt through all Christendom, and whose energies have 
been employed in surrounding the throne of Omnipo- 
tence with horror, and the lot of man with woe and de- 
spair. I mean the system of sovereign, partial election 
and endless reprobation. 

To this system, I frankly confess myself utterly op- 
posed; and as I would confront its abettors at the 
threshold of their own arguments, I have taken hold of 
a passage of sacred writ which they suppose to be at 
the foundation of their creed, and I trust I shall be 
able to wrest from them what they have used as a main 
prop of their faith, and present it as the plain support 
of the doctrine of sovereign mercy manifesting its true 
character in effecting the salvation of mankind. I wish 
to preface my examination of the wide and important 
subject laid before me in my text, by this single re- 
mark. I have no intention to inflict a wound on the 
feelings of any sincere Christian in this assembly, of 
whatever order he may be a member. I know men 
are prone to think themselves the objects of animad- 
version, when only their opinions are attacked ; and 
yet it is very illiberal thus to think. I can conceive a 
person may be a great enemy to some of my doctrines, 
and yet a sincere friend to me. Opinions when laid 
before the public, become public property, which every 
member of the community ought to be allowed to ex- 
amine without censure. It is not with men but with 
their principles that we have to do. An error in faith 
is not necessarily productive of error in practice. Its 



SERMON IX. 



20 L 



pernicious influence may be modified and counteracted 
by opposing influences resulting from sound principles 
being combined with it. A man's character is not to 
be decided upon by some peculiar sentiments he adopts. 
I have known many very good people who were ex- 
ceedingly tenacious of some gross tenets of religious 
faith. I have known, on the other hand, some bad 
people advance sound opinions. I am conscious of 
teaching many truths, but I do not claim on that ac- 
count to be esteemed a true Christian. No ; my fel- 
low-men are to form their judgments concerning the 
doctrines I inculcate from the consistency or want of 
consistency with reason and scripture, which those doc- 
trines exhibit, and not from the tenor of my conduct ; 
and they are to read my worth or want of worth not in 
my doctrines, but in my life. What I would that oth- 
ers should do to me in this respect, I do to them. I 
measure my estimation of my fellow-men not from 
what truths or errors I judge they hold, but from the 
spirit they manifest, from the lives they lead ; not from 
what peculiar dogmas they profess to believe, but 
from what actions they perform. Split up into various 
sects and sentiments as Christendom is, Christian min- 
isters of all denominations cannot too frequently urge 
their hearers to the practice of mutual forbearance and 
charity. It is the easiest thing in the world for a re- 
ligious teacher to spread among his adherents embit- 
tered feeling towards the professors of sentiments at va- 
riance with theirs, and thus to scatter the wild-fires of 
dissension and animosity among mankind, and kindle 

17* 



202 



SERMON IX, 



flames of malevolence and persecution. But, O my 
God, I know not what condemnation teachers who do 
thus, art bringing on their own souls as well as those 
of their hearers. 

I do entreat of you, my dear Christian friends, of 
whatever order you may be, not to construe any thing 
I shall utter in this discourse, as proceeding from per- 
sonal disrespect or a want of Christian charity. You 
take the liberty of advancing objections to our views, 
we do not blame you for this ; nor should you censure 
us for making our objections against your sentiments. 
I should have but a poor opinion of you were you to 
withhold what you believe to be important truth; and I 
should have a poor opinion of myself, and you ought 
to have a poor opinion of me, should I, as a Christian 
minister, keep back from a frank and honest avowal of 
those views of Christian doctrine which I entertain. 

Having thus striven to guard my own breast and the 
breasts of my hearers against those unkind and illiberal 
feelings which discussions of controverted religious te- 
nets are but too apt to arouse, I solicit your attention, 
my friendly hearers, to an humble illustration of the im- 
port of my text. Its manifest doctrine is this, that 
God, as sovereign ruler of the universe, does see fit to 
elect a certain portion of his creatures from among the 
rest, to stand in a peculiar relation to himself, to possess 
peculiar endowments, to enjoy peculiar advantages, and 
to answer peculiar purposes. 

This is so evidently the doctrine of scripture and 
reason, that it stands in no need of direct proof. The 



SERMON IX. 



203 



only difference that can arise concerning it may be 
summed up in the three following questions : first, 
what are the grounds of God's election ? Second, 
what influence does this election exert on the elect ? 
Third, what consequences arise from it to the non- 
elect ? An answer to these three inquiries will form 
the substance of the present discourse. 

I. My first inquiry is, What are the grounds of God's 
election of a part of mankind to peculiar relations, en- 
dowments and offices ? To this question I am pre- 
pared to give but one answer, viz. the absolute, inde- 
pendent, sovereign grace and good pleasure of the Al- 
mighty. This is the plain doctrine of the scriptures, and 
is confirmed by human reason, noticing the every-day 
operations of divine providence. That men are elect- 
ed independently of their own works, is a doctrine of 
scripture. The Apostle plainly asserts it in the chap- 
ter which contains my text. Speaking of Esau and 
Jacob, he says, £ For the children being not yet born, 
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose 
of God according to election might stand, not of works, 
but of him that calleth,' — these words express as fully 
as language can express, that Jacob was chosen by the 
Almighty to be the inheritor of peculiar blessings ; — 
that his being thus elected was an act of divine sover- 
eignty, and not the consequence of good or evil done 
by him ; that Esau was not so chosen, that his not be- 
ing so elected was also an act of the divine sovereignty, 
and not the consequence of good or evil done by him. 
The children o f Israel were an elect nation, the chosen 



204 



SERMON IX. 



people of God ; yet Moses says to them, ' Understand 
therefore, that Jehovah thy God giveth thee not this 
good land to possess it for thy righteousness ; for thou 
art a stiff-necked people.' Samuel referred to its hav- 
ing pleased Jehovah to make them his people. Eze- 
kiel, (chapter xx.) plainly declares the greatness of their 
iniquity, and that the Lord chose them and wrought 
for them, notwithstanding all their sins, for his name's 
sake. 

This same doctrine of election independent of hu- 
man merits, is supported by uniform experience. We 
see persons all around us possessing advantages which 
they have had no hand in procuring ; while we see 
others destitute of like advantages, not from any fault 
of their own. One is born in a palace, the inheritor of 
a kingdom, while the other is born in a hovel, the 
child of want, perhaps of infamy and disgrace. One 
man comes into the world to be the idol of wealthy and 
influential friends, deriving prosperity as a gift instead 
of an acquisition, while another is doomed by circum- 
stances beyond his control, to struggle against the cur- 
rent of the most untoward events. What is thus true 
of individuals is no less so of communities. One peo- 
ple receive their being in a climate the most salubrious, 
in a land the most fertile, under a government the most 
benign, beneath the influence of institutions, civil, lite- 
rary and religious, the most salutary; while another 
people by the circumstances of their birth are unavoid- 
ably excluded from the enjoyment of such privileges. 
One generation of men are born to the possession of 



SERMON IX. 



205 



great political tranquillity, moral light and general na- 
tional welfare, while another generation in the same 
country are thrown into existence, as it were, in the 
midst of political convulsions, at a period when the 
community is distracted by civil dissensions, and the 
whole face of society marred by carnage and desolation. 

Thus we perceive, both from the declarations of 
God's word and from the dictates of common experi- 
ence, that some men, independently of their own merits, 
are made the subiects of advantages denied to other 
men. Now this feature of the divine government I 
call sovereign election ; that is, the unmerited bestow- 
ment by one means or another of certain favors on one 
person or class of persons, from which others without 
any fault of their own are excluded. Now the ques- 
tion comes up, does this distribution of blessings render 
the divine government obnoxious to just censure? 
Does it argue that the Creator is a partial being, a re- 
specter of persons, or in the words of our text, ' Is there 
unrighteousness with God ?' The true answer to these 
questions must necessarily be satisfactory or unsatisfac- 
tory to our minds, just so far as we obtain or fail to ob- 
tain just ideas of the final object to be accomplished by 
this varied distribution of favors. 

II. This leads us to our second inquiry ; What conse- 
quences are to result to mankind as a whole from the 
election of a part ? 

Now the scriptural doctrine of election is, that the 
elect are chosen and qualified for certain purposes to 
promote the good of the world. Christ was the first 



206 



SERMON IX. 



elect or chosen of God to be the Savior of the world. 
c Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in 
whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon 
him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.' 
' And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent 
the Son to be the Savior of the world.' A being cho- 
sen and qualified of God to be the Savior of the world, 
he took human nature for his body, thus becoming the 
' Head of every man.' 

The nation of the Jews too, were in an early age 
elected to become the channel through which divine 
knowledge might be conveyed to the world. Abraham 
was elected to be the father of a nation peculiarly dis- 
tinguished for spiritual privileges. Now what is the 
revealed object of this election ? The blessing of the 
whole world. For it is declared that in Abraham and 
his seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 
When the Jewish dispensation finally came to a close, 
the Messiah, for ages predicted by the mouths of the 
prophets, came and fulfilled by his own death and res- 
urrection, the darker teaching of the law. He came 
to his own, but his own received him not. The scep- 
tre then departed from Judah, and the law-giver from 
between his feet. The Jews as a nation were reject- 
ed. The gospel was proclaimed, and a remnant of the 
house of Israel were chosen, who, together with a select 
number of Gentiles, were elected for believers. The} 
were chosen out of the world, and duly qualified to be 
lights in the world, to enlighten the Gentiles. Paul 
styles himself a servant of God and an Apostle of Je- 



SERMON IX, 



207 



sus Christ according to the faith of God's elect. c And 
shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry unto him 
day and night ?' ' If it were possible, they should de- 
ceive the very elect.' Now, by these and numerous 
phrases of a similar character, the band of believers in 
the early ages of Christianity is evidently intended. 
The Jewish church being a church of ordinances and 
ceremonies to shadow forth the more glorious dispen- 
sation of the gospel, was distinguished by the mark of 
circumcision. The elect believers in the gospel receiv- 
ed the inward seal of faith. The name Israel is given 
to believers, because they bear the same faith which 
Jacob had when he prevailed with the angel, and had 
his name changed from Jacob to Israel. Among this 
elect company of early Christian believers, was a rem- 
nant of the ancient covenant people, while the rest of 
the nation were abandoned to blindness of mind and 
hardness of heart. Hence we see the propriety of St 
Paul's declaration — ( They are not all Israel that are of 
Israel.' Under the former dispensation, the Jews were 
elected to teach divine truth through the types and 
shadows of the law. Under that of the gospel, a visi- 
ble church of believers was chosen out of the world, or 
elected, to enforce faith and repentance. The seed of 
Abraham was elected, that through it all the families 
of the earth might be blessed. A similar purpose is 
declared to be the object of the election of believers. 
Thus Christ uses the expression — c That they all may 
be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that 
they also may be one in us, that the world may believe 
that thou hast sent me, I in them and thou in me, that 



208 



SERMON IX. 



they may be made perfect in one, that the world may 
know' — e and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.' 
And to this agree the words of the prophet, as it is writ- 
ten, ' After this I will return, and will build again the 
tabernacle of David, which is thrown down, and will 
build again the ruins thereof, and set it up that the 
residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the 
Gentiles on whom my name is called, saith the Lord 
who doeth all these things.' 

Thus we have briefly glanced at the scriptural doc- 
trine of election, and so far from finding in it any thing 
like a partial or an exclusive spirit we discover that in 
every instance, one man or one class of men is elected 
to promote the general good. In his election of Abram 
and his posterity, God declares the object to be that all 
the families of the earth should be blessed. 

In his election of his son, the object is declared to be 
the salvation of the world. He elected, qualified and 
sent him to be the Savior of the world. In the election 
of believers in the early days of Christianity, w T hen mir- 
aculous means were made use of to give evidence to the 
truth of the gospel, the object is declared to be that 
the world may believe, and that the world may know 
the truth that Christ was sent from God. The Apos- 
tle Paul was elected and miraculously converted to be 
a preacher to the Gentiles ; but so far was he from think- 
ing himself on this account a peculiar favorite of heaven, 
or belonging to any class who had an exclusive inter- 
est in the atonement, that he declares that Christ tast- 
ed death for every man. John was a beloved disciple 
and a chosen vessel, but yet declares that Christ aton- 



209 



td for the sins of the whole world. We have shown 
in what sense and for what purpose God has an elect 
people, and that the elect are not chosen heirs of eter- 
nal salvation to the exclusion of the rest of the world, 
but for the salvation, through faith, of the world. — - 
Thus we perceive that God elects a part of his crea- 
tures, not for their own benefit merely, but that they 
may fulfill certain purposes promotive of the general 
good. Thus among men legislators are elected, not 
for their own exclusive advantage, but to advance the 
interests of society at large. In the illustration which 
I have given of this scriptural, benevolent) and very 
rational doctrine of election, I have given my ideas the 
quaint dress of the scriptural representation, a repre- 
sentation well adapted to the periods in which these 
ancient writings were penned. To express myself 
more in consonance to modern modes of language, I 
would say that God has from the beginning constitut- 
ed the natural and moral laws which control this world, 
in such a manner, that there is a cause appointed to 
produce every effect ; and that there is a time pecu- 
liarly proper for each cause to act and each effect to 
be produced ; that society is of a nature to advance 
through successive ages towards perfection ; that one 
age is peculiarly suitable for the development of one 
truth, and that another development of intellectual 
light is better fitted for another period of the world 
that when society is ripe for a new acquisition of 
knowledge, minds spring up, peculiarly constructed by 
the God of nature, and peculiarly placed by the hand. 
18 



SERMON IX. 



of Providence in situations favorable to the unfolding 
of such truths as meet the demands of the age. Thus 
one individual is now elected and qualified by natural 
endowments and acquired energies, to give new acces- 
sions of light to the nation to which he belongs — and 
that nation to become a source of still wider advance- 
ment. Thus Abraham is elected to be the father of 
the Jewish nation, — thus Isaiah to be its most accom- 
plished prophet. Thus Newton is elected to instruct 
the world in philosophy, — thus Washington was elect- 
ed to be the champion of American freedom, — thus, 
we say it with reverence, Christ was elected to be the 
head of a spiritual kingdom for the dispensing of bless- 
ings to the whole world of mankind, the moral, the 
spiritual Savior of the world. 

If these views of election are correct, no partiality 
or injustice is imputable to God. Every man is elect- 
ed to fulfill some purpose, and is to be judged accord- 
ing to his rightful improvement or misimprovement.of 
the capacities and advantages which his Creator has 
bestowed, so that strict justice will be rendered to eve- 
ry being, and sovereign mercy will, through various 
channels, bring human nature to purity and happiness. 
Having thus briefly given you my views of the nature 
and design of election, 1 shall endeavor to reconcile 
several verses of the text to these views. 

What then are we to understand by the declaration, 
{ I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy ?' 
Unquestionably that the Creator exercises his mercy 
according to his own good pleasure, that he bestows it 



SERMON IX. 



211 



on such individuals, and at such times, and in such 
manner as best suits the accomplishment of all his be- 
nevolent designs toward the whole family of his crea- 
tures. But surely we have no reason to suppose his 
mercy limited to a part of his creatures, when inspira- 
tion expressly informs us that he is good unto all, and 
that his tender mercies are over all his works. But 
again it is said, ' It is not of him that willeth, nor of him 
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.' All that 
we can infer from this is, that God does not equally man- 
ifest his mercy to all in the present state ; but no proof 
is thence derived that all will not finally become the 
recipients of his grace. You will find by turning to 
Isaiah xxviii. 11, that it is declared of his chosen peo- 
ple the Israelites, e Therefore he that made them will 
not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will 
show them no favor;' and in Hosea ii. 4, of Jerusalem 
God says, 'And I will not have mercy upon her chil- 
dren yet this withdrawal of mercy for a time, did not 
finally exclude them from mercy. For in Romans xi. 
the Apostle declares, ' that God hath concluded them 
all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.' 
There are periods when God doth manifest his displea- 
sure against sin by inflicting condign punishment on 
transgressors ; but this does not prove that sin or his 
displeasure will continue forever. And it is expressly 
declared that he will finish sin, and make an end of 
transgression, that he will not be always wroth, that 
his wrath endureth for a moment, but his mercy endur- 
eth forever. 



212 



SERMON IX, 



But, says an objector, it is also declared, 'and whom 
he will he hardeneth,' and Pharaoh is introduced as an 
example. 1 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even 
for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I 
might show my power in thee r and that my name 
might be declared throughout all the earth,' It is very 
commonly supposed that it is implied in this passage 
that God brought Pharaoh into existence and raised 
him up to manhood for the purpose of making him an 
abandoned wretch, that his Creator might have the 
glory of destroying him. But what grounds have we 
for coining to such a conclusion ? None whatever. 
Pharaoh was raised to the throne through the ordinary 
events of God's providence, as many bad men have 
been ; and, like many other bad rulers, he abused and 
perverted his privileges, misused the means of benefit- 
ing mankind which his exalted station gave him, and 
instead of proving a blessing, became a scourge to the 
human race. Various evils came upon him as the con- 
sequences of his sins ; but chastisements did not bring 
him to true repentance, he still remained a wicked 
man. Was he immediately destroyed ? No, though 
a very wicked man, God still spared him, and even 
raised him up from the sore evils that had gathered 
around him. What could justify the divine Being in 
this procedure, in thus extending continued favors to 
one who so grossly and perseveringly abused them ? 
The answer is thus given ; ' That 1 might show my 
power in thee, and that my name might be declared 
throughout all the earth. ' We have no reason to con- 



SERMON IX. 



213 



elude that God hardened his heart, by infusing, through 
a special agency, an impenitent disposition into his 
mind, nor by placing him in a situation in which he 
could not avoid becoming and remaining a hardened 
rebel. Had Jehovah thus dealt with him, we ought 
rather to pity the unfortunate man for his hard fate, 
than to condemn him for being and doing that which 
he could not help being and doing. It wars against ev- 
ery honorable conception we can form of the divine 
character, as well as the scriptural declarations that 
God is love, that he is good unto all, and that his tender 
mercies are over all his works — to suppose that he 
should compel any of his creatures to be hardened and 
impenitent sinners, and then torment them forever for 
being that which they could not avoid being. The 
scriptures declare that God cannot be tempted with 
evil, neither tempteth he any man. No, the case of 
Pharaoh is not an uncommon case. Pharaoh, like all 
the rest of us was made a free agent, capable of choos- 
ing good and of choosing evil, capable of doing right or 
of doing wrong, just as he pleased, and if capable of 
thus choosing and doing, of course liable thus to choose 
and do. Since it is not in the power of God to make 
man a free agent, capable of choosing good or evil, of 
doing right or wrong just as he pleased, and yet make 
him incapable of choosing evil and doing wrong, God 
could no more do this than he could produce what 
would imply a contradiction in terms in any other 
way. for instance, than he could make two mountains 
without a valley between them. How then was God 

18* 



214 



SERMON IX* 



said to harden Pharaoh's heart ? In no other sense 
than he may be said to harden the heart of every sin- 
ner, in having made him capable of doing right or 
wrong, and therefore liable to do wrong, and in having 
placed him in situations where good and evil were set 
before him, leaving him free to incline to the one or 
the other just as he pleased. He did please to incline 
to the evil, and thus he rendered the facts of his free 
agency, and of his situation, instruments of hardening 
his heart. Now, he had the same capacity to have 
chosen good that he had to choose evil, the same ca- 
pacity to do right, that he had to do wrong, and had 
he chosen the good and done the right, then he would 
have rendered the facts that he was a free agent, and 
that good and evil were set before him, the instruments of 
softening his heart. Then God might have been said 
to have softened Pharaoh's heart. How ? Through 
his having rightly improved the nature, capacities and 
advantages that God had bestowed upon him. But 
as the case was, God was said to have hardened Pha- 
raoh's heart. How ? By his having misimproved the 
capacities and advantages with which God had endow- 
ed him. But was it necessary that Pharaoh should be 
a bad man in order that God's power might be shown, 
and that his name might be declared throughout all the 
earth ? The facts in the present case do not necessa- 
rily lead us to such a conclusion. We can conceive of 
so many other ways in which God could have made 
an equal display of his power, and sent his name 
abroad, that it seems hardly admissible that he was de- 



SERMON IX* 



215 



pendent on the wickedness of Pharaoh to effect these 
purposes. To what conclusions, then, do we arrive 
from the passage under consideration ? Plainly to 
nothing other than these ; that the very favors which 
God had bestowed on Pharaoh, through his abuse of 
them, had become the instruments of hardening his 
heart, and that as his heart was thus hardened, God so 
overruled his wickedness that it became subservient to 
the display of his power, and to the declaring of his 
name throughout all the earth. The like conduct we 
believe God exercises towards all sinners. He does not 
compel them to violate his laws, but if they will do so, 
he overrules their wicked actions in such a way, that, 
though they shall not escape the just punishment of 
their sins, their wickedness shall not be able to 
frustrate his benevolent designs towards all mankind. 
Thus, though he does not by any direct agency force 
men to exercise wrath, yet if they will do it, he makes 
c the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of 
wrath he will restrain.' 

Thus far I hope my illustrations of the text, though 
necessarily brief, are in the main satisfactory. I pro- 
ceed to examine what is implied in the question, i Hath 
not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump 
to make one vessel unto honor and another to dishonor ?' 
Clay is a yielding, pliable substance ; and the potter 
has power over it to mould it into one form or another, 
and thus fit his several vessels for one use or another, 
just as best suits his purposes ; but no clay can be more 
completely subject to the will and power of the potter, 



216 



SERMON IX. 



than human nature is to the will and power of Almigh= 
ty God. But what wise potter ever moulded a mass of 
clay in such a manner that a certain number of vessels 
were made to exhibit evidences of the most nice and 
curious workmanship, and of design to adapt them to the 
most important uses, displaying thus the ingenuity and 
ability of the artificer, while from the same mass, equally 
under his power, he formed a certain number of other 
vessels so entirely unfit for use or ornament, that they 
were of no other consequence than to be broken and 
destroyed ? And for what purpose ? Why, that the 
power of the potter over his clay might be made 
known, or in other words, that men might say that this 
ingenious and skillful workman, who was able to con- 
struct out of a lump of dead clay vessels of the most 
exquisite beauty and for the most valuable purposes, 
had also the astonishing skill, out of the same lump to 
bring forth fabrics of the utmost deformity, and con- 
struct vessels that were good for nothing, and therefore 
fit only to be destroyed. What honor would any man 
of good sense award to a potter who acted on such 
principles ? Would his useless works answer any bet- 
ter end to the maker than to remain as monuments of 
his vanity, folly and caprice ? And are we to under- 
stand the Apostle in our text, as likening the all-wise, 
benevolent and all-powerful Jehovah to such a vain, 
simple and capricious artificer ? By no means. Ev- 
ery wise potter will work up the whole mass of his 
clay, so far as he is able, to the best possible advan- 
tage ; and though after all, through want of skill, he 



SERMON IX. 



21? 



may fail of making all his vessels to answer the useful 
ends for which he designed them, yet no similar failure 
can happen to the formations of the infinite Creator. 

What then did Paul mean to illustrate by introduc- 
ing the supposed case of the potter ? Why, plainly 
this, that as the potter is able to construct vessels in 
different shapes and sizes to suit the general conveni- 
ence of his customers, adapting some to uses which 
men call dishonorable, and others to uses which they 
pronounce honorable, so God, having formed the uni- 
verse as a whole, to answer the best possible ultimate 
ends, has adapted every part of it to the most effectu- 
al promotion of these ends. So as it respects his allot- 
ments to mankind, he has bestowed upon one individ- 
ual such endowments; and advantages as are best suited 
to the sphere of action in which he is to move, and he 
has circumscribed that sphere just as he saw the ulti- 
mate interests of the individual and the general welfare 
would be best advanced. On another individual he 
has conferred some superior advantages, accompanied 
too with proportionably greater evils ; or less advan- 
tages in some respects, attended with less disadvan- 
tages. He has pursued the same general policy 
with nations ; he has endowed and placed one peo- 
ple in one manner, and another in another, just as 
he saw the world as a whole would derive the greatest 
benefit; and though men in their limited views of things 
may deem his allotments exceedingly partial and un- 
just, yet he, being all wise, knows best how the great- 
est final interests of all his creatures are to be promot- 



218 



SERMON IX. 



ed ; and compared with his infinite wisdom the wisdom 
of man is trifling. It would be equally proper for the 
unthinking clay, could it utter a voice, to arraign its 
maker for the several shapes into which he was mould- 
ing it, as for vain man to reply against God, to charge 
his Maker with partiality and injustice. In fact, if 
man knew the whole mind of the Deity, he would dis- 
cover that partiality and injustice formed no part of his 
character, no feature of his administration, but that in 
the several bestowments of his blessings on different 
individuals and nations, he was showing that he was 
good unto all and that his tender mercies were over all 
his works. As the potter, though he fits one vessel 
for one purpose and another for another, yet has no 
more regard for one part of his clay than for another, 
and designs to work up the whole lump to the best ad- 
vantage; thus God has so constituted human nature, 
and all the physical and moral laws to which it is sub- 
ject, that of the race of Adam some attain to a more 
and others to a less honorable station ; yet through this 
constitution of human nature the best final interests of 
the human race, as a whole, are promoted. 

I feel assured that the more the human mind is 
brought to the contemplation of the divine government, 
the more it will be satisfied of the tendency of every 
thing to produce universal good. Yet, viewing the 
dealings of God's providence in a partial point of sight, 
man is but too prone to urge complaints against his 
Maker, and to indulge in very reprehensible views of 
his character. The wise and skillful potter knows bet- 



SERMON IX. 



219 



ter than most who will gaze at his wares, in what man- 
ner his clay shall be rendered the most serviceable. He 
knows one vessel is demanded for one purpose, and 
another for another. He does not, therefore, make 
them all alike, but varies their structure according to 
the several purposes they are designed to answer. 

But, says an objector, we read of vessels fitted to 
destruction. True ; and we read of individuals and 
nations who have been destroyed, and we cannot sup- 
pose that they were thus destroyed, except through 
their having rendered themselves fit subjects of destruc- 
tion. But have we ground to believe that destruction 
is the great end of their existence ? Read the seven- 
teenth chapter of Jeremiah, and you will find what aw- 
ful destruction was threatened upon the Jews as a na- 
tion. It is declared, 'The sin of Judah is written with 
a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond,' and 
the prophet prays God to bring upon them the day of 
evil, and destroy them with double destruction. And 
read through the prophets, and observe how judgments 
were threatened against them under the word destruc- 
tion. But what then ? Suppose you that the pious 
Jeremiah prayed for the endless damnation of his na- 
tion, and suppose you that the threatenings of their de- 
struction implied their consignment to endless misery 
in the future state ? No rational commentator would 
give such a meaning to the word destruction. But not- 
withstanding all the iniquities of the Jews, and the swift 
destruction that came upon them, the apostle asks, 
' Hath God cast away his people?' and answers, i God 



I 

§20 SERMON IX, 

forbid,' and declares, ' So all Israel shall be saved. 5 In 
this very comparison of the potter it is almost certain 
that he alluded to the eighteenth chapter of Jeremiah^ 
where it is stated that the Lord commanded Jeremiah 
to go down to the potter's house, and the prophet had 
there seen the vessel which the potter had made, mar- 
red in the artificer's hand, and formed again by him in- 
to another vessel, as it seemed good to him to make it. 
The question was then asked, 'O house of Israel, can- 
not I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord ? Be- 
hold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in 
my hand, O house of Israel.' If then when a vessel 
is marred in the hands of a potter, he can form it again, 
and continue his work, until he hath completed it to 
his own mind, shall it be said that Jehovah cannot do 
the same with his frail creatures ? If they be marred 
under his hand in his dispensations towards them, and 
broken in pieces like a potter's vessel, can he not form 
them again, continue his dispensations towards, and his 
his operations upon them, until he has made them such 
as he can rejoice in, pure and happy beings ? Shall it 
be said that God hath less power over his creatures 
than the potter hath over his clay ? If God can mould 
the house of Israel as the potter does his clay when it 
is marred, can he not do the same with all his crea- 
tures ? The Apostle declares, not only that all things 
are of God and through him, but likewise that all things 
are to him. But how can all things be to him, if the 
same vessels he has made are most sadly devoted to 
dishonorable and unclean uses ? ' 



SERMON IX. 



221 



From a right consideration of our subject, we may 
derive many useful practical reflections. In view of 
the love of God to each of us, we ought to be influ- 
enced, by the highest, purest motives, to love him in 
return, to withdraw ourselves from all affections and 
practices which he has forbidden, and to devote our 
hearts and our lives to his service. In the second 
place, in view of the impartial justice of God in as- 
signing his various allotments to his creatures, and 
making his various requirements of them, we ought to 
recognize ourselves as free and accountable beings, to 
be judged here and hereafter according to the deeds 
done in the body, whether they be good or bad, and to 
be rewarded or punished, not according to the blessings 
we enjoy, or the stations we occupy, but in exact pro- 
portions we have improved or misimproved our sev- 
eral opportunities and advantages. Thirdly, we should 
learn from our subject, contentment in our several 
spheres of action, believing that whatever assignment 
God has allotted us is dictated by infinite wisdom and 
goodness, and that if we act well our parts in ouj respec- 
tive stations in life, we shall not only meet the ap- 
probation of Heaven, but more fully accomplish our own 
felicity, and the good of the world around us, than we 
could do had we been differently placed. Thus should 
we rest satisfied in the conviction of the Apostle, that all 
things work together for good unto them that love God. 
Finally, in view of God's universal benevolence, we 
sdoulh be incited to imitate it, to go forth from the nar- 
row walls which a selfish spirit is accustomed to build 

19 



222 



SERMON IX. 



around itself, and to stand out in the open and clear 
light of pure and expansive charity, beneath the broad 
heaven of an all-embracing love, manifesting in all our 
intercourse with our fellow-men a sincere desire not to 
advance our own interests by injuring our neighbor's, 
but of blessing ourselves by blessing others. And thus, 
my friendly hearers, let us be lovers of God and imita- 
tors of his goodness, fearers of God and haters of iniqui- 
ty, faithful disciples of Jesus, admirers of his law, fol- 
lowers of his precepts and copiers of his example, and 
partakers in this world and the next of the salvation he 
came to effect. May it be the great aim of our lives 
to honor God cheerfully by honoring the noble natures 
he has given us, by doing good and not evil to the 
creatures he has formed, by rendering ourselves and all 
around us as wise, as good, and consequently as happy 
as we can, 



SERMON X. 



GOD THE FATHER OF ALL. 

Malachi ii. 10. 4 Have we not all one father, hath not one God 
created us?' 

Most men agree in tracing the origin of the uni- 
verse to the exercise of a creative power, whatever 
may be their respective notions of the essential nature 
of that power, whether it be matter or spirit ; or 
whatever may be the names by which they choose to 
designate it, whether ' Jehovah, Jove or Lord.' No 
exercise of our minds is more natural than to contem- 
plate an effect, as proceeding from some cause capable 
of producing it. To an effect which exhibits evident 
marks, of design we hesitate not to assign a cause ca- 
pable of designing. Such a cause is an intelligent 
agent. We look at a dwelling suited in its construc- 
tions to the wants and conveniences of a human ten- 
ant, and the inference is irresistible that every house 
is built by some man. We look on the great fabric of 
the universe ; we find as far as our observation extends, 
the most manifest tokens of contrivance : and we have 
a right to infer the existence of a contriver as much 



224 



SERMON X. 



superior in intelligence and power to the builder of 
the house, as the workmanship of the universe is more 
vast and complicated than the buildings which man is 
able to plan and erect. Hence our notions of an in- 
telligent Deity. A self-existent creative power must 
exist somewhere; and from the order and harmony 
which every where meet our view in our contempla- 
tions of nature, we most naturally come to the conclu- 
sion that this self-existent power is an intelligent agent. 
Such we conceive to be the plain doctrine of Natural 
Theology. Revelation not only sanctions this doctrine, 
but it enters into a detail of the moral qualities of this 
wonderful intelligence, clothes it with the properties of 
a person, and brings into view the moral relations which 
subsist between him and all intellectual beings. In 
our text, as in many other passages, God and men are 
represented as bearing to each other the relationship 
of father and children. Jehovah is revealed to us, 
not only as the creator of all men but as the father of 
all men. In what sense God is said to be a father to 
us all, and in what respects he exhibits the parental 
character towards us, will form the subject of our pres- 
ent consideration. 

I. Let us inquire, first, in what sense God is said to be 
a father to us all. God may with great propriety be 
called the creator of an object of which it would be 
improper to call him father. An ingenious workman 
builds a machine ; he is properly said to be its builder 
or maker, but not its father. There are no natural 
ties of affection, no simiarity of moral qualities, no 



SERMON X. 



225 



moral obligations betwixt tbe workman and his unintelli- 
gent machine. So God is the creator of inanimate 
matter, but not its father ; he is the creator of the 
brute, but not its father. He is the creator and or- 
ganizer of the unthinking substances which compose 
our mortal bodies, but not their father. He is the 
source from which emanates the immortal spirit crea- 
ted in his moral likeness, bearing the impression of his 
moral image ; and he is its father. He is ' the former 
of our bodies and the father of our spirits. 5 ' The 
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.' 
Now this formed or organized mass of inanimate mat- 
ter was the mechanism of divine skill and power, but 
no more the child of God, than was the dust which 
composed it before the Almighty artificer had mould- 
ed it into an organic shape. But when the Creator 
breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and he 
became a living soul, endowed with such moral proper- 
ties of the divine nature as enabled the inspired writer to 
declare, 'in the image of God created he him,' — I say, 
when God thus breathed a vital and moral essence of 
his own nature into man, . when he thus imparted to 
him a principle of being which existed in himself, he 
established by a single act between himself and man 
the relationship of father and child, — a relationship 
founded in the most endearing ties of natural affection, 
and embracing in itself the strongest obligations of re- 
gard and protection on the one hand, and of submission 
and obedience on the other. Thus we find the origin 
of this kindred connection existing between man and 
19* 



226 



SERMON X. 



his Maker, on which inspiration loves so much to dwell? 
in the fact that God stamped on the soul of man in his 
original creation, the impression of his own moral im- 
age, that is, imparted to him qualities which appertain 
to the divine nature, and endowed him with capacities 
to understand and obey the same law of love which 
God makes his ow r n rule of action. 

In this relationship consists God's right to enforce a 
moral law, and man's duty to obey it. Now the truth 
of no proposition can be more evident than this, 1 that 
the same natural relationship which any individual of 
the human race bears to God, is common to the whole 
human family,' or, as the Prophet Malachi implies, that 
one God is the creator and father of us all. St Paul 
declares, in his appeal to the Grecian poets, ' We are 
also his offspring.' 1 He has made of one blood all na- 
tions of men to dwell on the face of the earth. 5 All this 
is evident, w T hether we seek for the proof in the pages of 
Revelation or Nature, in the organization of our bodies 
or the structure of our minds. So strong is the resem- 
blance of one human frame to another, that the medi- 
cal professor is able, by acquainting himself with all the 
parts of a single subject, to detect the natural formation 
of all men. So striking is the analogy of mind, that the 
philosopher in investigating the operation of his own 
mental pow x ers, is able to produce a theory of the mind 
whose general features are recognized to be true of the 
moral and intellectual faculties of all men. The dis- 
cerning advocate, from a sense of what arguments 
weigh on his own understanding, and what impulses act 



SERMON X. 



227 



on his own passions, is able by one effort of eloquence 
to pour conviction on the minds, and incline to his fa- 
vor the feelings of a learned Court, a sober Jury, and 
a mixed multitude of listeners. — The same principles 
which bind one man to duty, are equally binding on all 
men. But we need not tarry to illustrate what is of it- 
self sufficiently plain. 

II. God being the father of all men, we hasten to in- 
quire secondly, in what manner in his dealings with all 
men he exhibits towards them the parental character. 

And first we contend that God exhibits towards all 
men a perfectly parental character in the requisitions of 
his law. It is the part of a good father to wish and 
require his children to do that which is good, and in 
such requisition to have for his object their welfare. 
Now if we look into the nature of the divine com- 
mandments, we shall perceive, I trust, that our Father 
in heaven acts on precisely the same principle. All 
of his requirements are of that character that we can in 
no way so effectually promote our own real interests as 
by making them the rule of our conduct. The sum- 
mary of the divine law is this — 'Love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, mind and strength, and thy neigh- 
bor as thyself.' God being the fountain of love and 
equity, an obedience to this heavenly precept implies 
that all our feelings should flow from the dictates of be- 
nevolence, and all our actions be squared by the un- 
bending rule of right. To love God is to love what 
is good and just. He then that so loves what is 
good and just as to make it the rule of his conduct, 



228 



SERMON X. 



loves God. And no proof is necessary to convince 
you all, that the man whose heart is thus actuated by 
love, and whose mind is thus governed by principle, is 
possessed of the happiest character in the world. A 
good parent requires his children to live with each 
other in harmony and peace. Our Father in heaven 
requires the same. We are exhorted to love our 
neighbor as ourselves, to do unto men whatsoever we 
would that they should do unto us. He that stead- 
fastly follows this rule can never do wrong. He can 
never infringe on the rights of his fellow-men, for this 
heavenly precept brings to his view a principle within 
him, as an infallible preceptor of duty. This principle 
is self-love. 

What self-love, the strongest passion in our breast, 
directed by reason, tells us would be just and equitable 
for another man to do to us in any given circumstances, 
we know is just and equitable for us in the same cir- 
cumstances to do to others. He who follows "this 
Golden Rule' of duty is an exactly upright and 
honest man, ' the noblest work of God,' and the poet 
might have added too, the happiest work of God. 
Such a man, depend upon it, is the most certain to pro- 
cure prosperity and enjoyment. He acquires the con- 
fidence, respect and love of the world around him, and 
what is of still greater consequence, he is able to re- 
spect himself, and enjoy that secret complacency of a 
good conscience w T hich is a stranger to the bosom of 
the unprincipled worldling. Like some gentle river 
that forms a boundary betwixt warring nations, his life 



SERMON X. 



229 



pursues its course free and unruffled amid the discor- 
dant clashings which engage the sons of artifice and 
strife. He has no occasion for disguises to cloak his 
real character. His heart is like a lake of crystal ; 
you may look to the bottom and you will find nothing 
impure ; there are no turbid springs there to tinge the 
clearness of its waters, but in its calm mirror the image 
of the pure heavens above reposes. 

Man loves to be happy. Happiness is his great aim, 
his chief good. Now the law of God directs him to 
the only path in which he can find it, by laying before 
him the great chart of his duty to his God, to his neigh- 
bor, to himself. As to the self-denial required of us, 
we are only commanded to abstain from that which 
would injure us. The divine law enforces as duties, the 
practice of temperance, chastity, sobriety, industry, 
moderation; and to disregard its precepts in these re- 
spects is to pursue a course of conduct which serves to 
mar our own peace, injure our health, property, re- 
spectability, and usefulness to ourselves and those with 
whom we are connected. 

We thus perceive that God manifests the paternal 
character towards all men in the standard of duty which 
he has set up for all men to follow. 

But, secondly, God exhibits the paternal character 
toward all of his children in the moral discipline of his 
government. It is the object of a good parent to place 
his children in suuh situations, and to pursue towards 
them such a course of discipline as he esteems the 
most. conducive to their good. Now we maintain that 



230 



SERMON X. 



the common Father of us all, in his government of the 
whole family of man, acts on the same principle. Par- 
tiality to children, the common consent of mankind 
condemns in an earthly parent, and we are confident 
it forms no feature of the divine administration. The 
Scriptures declare that the wisdom from above is with- 
out partiality — that God is no respecter of persons, — 
that every man shall be rewarded according to his 
deeds whether they be good or bad. It then follows 
that the sin of one transgressor is punished with the 
same severity which is inflicted on another equally crim- 
inal offender, and that the same motive which induces 
the exercise of punishment on one individual, gives 
rise to its infliction on all transgressors. Now it forms 
a part of the belief of Christians of all denominations, 
that God punishes all men in mercy. Nothing is 
more common than to find good men, in the sacred 
books and elsewhere, expressing their sense of the 
goodness and mercy of God in the afflicting chastise- 
ments which he causes them to suffer. We maintain 
that the universal Father causes no distress to visit 
any of his moral offspring, but what is absolutely ne- 
cessary to their ultimate good. The Scriptures affirm 
that God c doth not willingly afflict or grieve,' not 
saints merely, but ' the children of men.' The Scrip- 
tures affirm that 1 God so loved the world ' — Whom 
did he love ? The world. But the Scriptures again 
affirm that whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and 
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

There is nothing in the nature of just and proper 



SERMON X. 



231 



punishment inconsistent with the most ardent and 
enduring affection and regard for the suffering offender. 
The best earthly parents are by no means those who 
are most sparing of the rod. They punish and yet 
they love their children. The punishment they inflict 
is dictated by love, not by caprice, or malice, or re- 
venge. In like manner our heavenly Father loves his 
world of intelligent beings, and yet inflicts that due 
measure of punishment which is requisite to their tem- 
poral and eternal welfare. 

The punishments of God we contend are as light as 
is consistent with the moral condition and true interests 
of his erring children, while his blessings are far great- 
er than their merits deserve; and thus his parental char- 
acter is manifested in perfect strength and glory. He 
punishes justly, he gives freely. The very name, father 
by which the relationship betwixt him and man is so 
frequently in the sacred writings expressed, implies 
something more than dealing with his children on the 
principles of adequate rewards and punishments alone. 
Show me the earthly parent who deals with his chil- 
dren only on strictly retributive principles, and I will 
show you an unfeeling monster in human shape. Chil- 
dren during the first years of their infancy merit noth- 
ing. They know nothing either of good or evil, At 
this tender period the truly parental character is dis- 
played unincumbered by retributions. The right of 
punishment is something superadded to that character; 
but the exercise of this right does not militate against 
it. The child grows up and acquires a knowledge of 



232 



SERMON X. 



good and evil. It has now a capacity to do right and 
to do wrong. It does wrong; the parent exercises 
the right of punishment with the same good feelings 
toward it that dictated those acts of kindness, which its 
helpless infancy required before it had become capable 
either of meriting rewards or of incurring displeasure. 
The right of punishment begins when the child begins 
to sin. It is lost when the child has done sinning. Ret- 
ribution is not a native but an assumed part of the pa- 
rental character, to meet the exigencies of a fallible 
state of being. That man should pass through a falli- 
ble state of being was a part of the divine purpose in 
devising his being. This fallible state requires a law, 
or a code of rewards and punishments. Retributions 
will continue just so long as man remains a fallible 
creature. But when man is made willing to sub- 
mit to the divine law, punishment becomes no longer 
necessary. It begins when man begins to be a sinner. 
It ends when man ceases to be a sinner. 

Thirdly, we see that God is the author of evil, but 
not of sin. He asserts, 'I make peace and create evil.' 
He creates evil, but not for evil's own sake. This cre- 
ation of evil results not from a love of evil, but from the 
love of the good which is to be promoted by this evil, 
and thus all evil in his universe is partial and results 
in universal good. Now an action, however painful 
in its consequences it may be, that results from a 
benevolent intention, is not sin. Consequently God 
is not the author of sin. A sinner loves evil, and 
this love of evil influences him to create evil, and this 



SERMON X. 



233 



malevolent affection in the heart, this evil intention is 
what constitutes sin. 

The unfeeling assassin stabs his victim ; he thus in- 
flicts an evil, and the intention which prompts the act 
is an evil one — to destroy life. The assassin, then, is 
a sinner. The benevolent surgeon inflicts a painful 
wound on his patient, but his intention is a good one 
— to save life. In this act he creates evil, but is free 
from sin. A malevolent wretch concerts a scheme to 
bring disgrace and ruin on his neighbor. He design- 
ingly lays a trap and presents lures to seduce him into 
temptation. His plan succeeds ; his neighbor falls a 
victim to the insidious wiles of his subtle adversary, 
and is thus deprived, perhaps, of his character and hap- 
piness, while his plotting betrayer is exulting in the 
ruin he has caused. This seducer is a villain of the 
blackest dye. He has created evil from an evil na- 
ture. A wise parent, on the contrary, places his chil- 
dren under the discipline of a just, but rigorous teacher. 
From his knowledge of the regulations of the school, 
and from his acquaintance with the mischievous pro- 
pensities of his children, he feels certain of two facts: 
first, that his children will disobey the orders of the 
school, and secondly, that if they do thus disobey, they 
will be suitably punished. Thus he may be said to 
design, first, their disobedience, and next, the punish- 
ment they receive in consequence of it. But what is 
the ultimate design of this father ? Surely not that 
his offspring should be utterly ruined by this discipline. 
No ; but that through its exercise their character? 

20 



234 



SERMON X. 



should be improved, their intellectual powers brighten- 
ed, and thus that they should become better qualified 
to discharge the important duties of after life. Now 
the disobedience and consequent punishment of these 
children, viewed separately as an end, were undoubt- 
edly evils. Yet with a full assurance of these evils in 
his mind, the father did not hesitate to place his chil- 
dren under the disciplinary care of the teacher. And 
yet every person of common sense and candor will say 
that he acted wisely and paternally in so doing. Why ? 
Because it is evident he did not expose his children to 
these evils as an end ; but merely as a means to secure 
for them a greater end, a means to procure for them a 
greater good than they could have ever enjoyed with- 
out having been-subjected to these evils. In a similar 
light we believe the Apostle viewed the disciplinary 
government of God over his creation, when he declar- 
ed, e For the creature/ or as critics assure us the orig- 
inal word might be more properly rendered, the crea- 
tion, ' was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but 
by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 
because the creature,' or creation, s itself shall be de- 
livered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious 
liberty of the children of God/ 

But to return to our consideration of the wise earthly 
fathers conduct, we say he subjected his children to 
the discipline of the school, not willingly, that is, not 
because he delighted in the disobedience of which he 
felt fully assured his children would be guilty, not be- 
cause he delighted in the pain they would experience 



SERMON Xe 



235 



in consequence of their guilt, but that through this dis- 
cipline they might be delivered from the bondage of 
ignorance and folly, into the liberty of improved hearts, 
corrected propensities, and cultivated intellects. And 
here,if it will not be esteemed an unpardonable digres- 
sion, 1 would observe that we can illustrate how God 
can design the acts of men and overrule them for their 
greatest good, yet have men act freely, and be really 
guilty, and justly deserving of punishment. If the 
children of the father whose intentions and conduct we 
have been canvassing, conducted in the school just as 
their father was well satisfied they would conduct when 
he placed them there, why were they any more crim- 
inal than he ? I answer, because they did mischief for 
mischiefs sake, they did evil with evil intentions, and 
were therefore criminal and deserving of punishment ; 
while he subjected them to a state where he was fully 
assured they would transgress and be rightfully punish- 
ed for their transgressions, with a good intention, name- 
ly, their future welfare. His intentions were good, and 
therefore his conduct worthy of approbation. 

But it may be asked, If God be indeed our Father, 
all-powerful and all-wise as he is represented, how was 
it consistent with his nature to permit the existence of 
evil at all? Why did not God make man and preserve 
him in a state of entire reconciliation to his will. I an- 
swer, that the only way in which we can reconcile the 
existence of evH with the attributes of our maker is by 
supposing it to be a means of promoting a greater good 



236 SERMON X. 

than could exist without it. In accounting for the or- 
igin of evil, we may compare it to poison in our food. 
God has given us food for the support of our bodies. 
Now we justly esteem this to be a very merciful pro- 
vision of our heavenly Father's bounty. But it is a 
well known fact that poison enters into the com- 
position of this food, and forms a very necessary and 
important ingredient of it. These poisonous particles 
in themselves, considered in their own nature sep- 
arately, are the very essence of what is most destruc^ 
tive to life but by their composition with other sub- 
stances they become divested of their pernicious 
character. The poison in its own nature consid- 
ered would produce death, but by being judiciously 
compounded, it is absolutely necessary to life. So 
evil in its own nature is opposed to the will of God 
and the happiness of all intelligent beings, but from the 
hands of infinite skill it may be so assorted out and dis- 
tributed to his creatures as to be necessary to the best 
ultimate good of those creatures. It is suffered to exist 
not as an end, but as a means which will give rise to a. 
greater good than could be experienced without it,, in 
the same way that poison which in itself is the very 
bane of life, may become an ingredient among other 
materials promotive of a greater degree of health 
than could be enjoyed without it, In this view, 
and in this view only, can the existence of sin be 
reconciled with the goodness, wisdom and power of 
the infinite Creator. If sin is infinite it cannot give rise 
to a greater good, since nothing can be more than infi- 



SERMON X. 



237 



lute. If to be sinful and consequently wretched is to 
he the end of any being's existence, God knowing this, 
when from dead matter he produced that existence, 
could not be said to be good. For the existence 
of that being is an infinite loss to him. But 4 he is 
good unto all, and his tender mercies are over all his 
works.' 

Man is a being whose ideas flow from a comparison 
of one object with another and whose knowledge is de« 
derived from reflection and experience. Thus capa- 
citated he may be supposed to be placed in this world 
as in a school of education, to acquire a knowledge of 
the first rudiments, the elementary principles of exis- 
tence. Happiness springs from what is good. To 
have a knowledge of happiness man must have a knowl- 
edge of good. How with his capacities is he to re- 
ceive this knowledge? We have just observed that 
all his ideas flow from a comparison of one object with 
another. Then surely there is no method under 
heaven by which he can acquire a knowledge of good, 
but by being able to compare it with its opposite evil. 
The inexperienced infant darts his hand into the blaze 
of a candle. Why? Because he does not know that 
the flame will harm him. He-feels the pain, and learns 
to be on his guard against the element which inflicts it. 
If a single trial does not operate on his senses so as to 
convince him that to have his hand in the flame is op- 
posed to his comfort, a succession of trials will. It is 
thus that i a burnt child learns to dread the fire.' Now 

from such experience the child acquires a knowledge 
20* 



238 



SERMON X. 



both of good and evil. He discovers that to have his 
hand in the flame is an evil, and to keep it out to be 
protected against the devouring element is a good. 
Again, man's affections are directed by his knowledge. 
He loves that which he knows to be good, he hates 
that which he knows to be evil. Sin then arises from 
an ignorance or a misconception of what constitutes sol- 
id good and what forms real evil. Now that the chil- 
dren of God may be delivered from this ignorance of 
misconception by actual experience, is we conceive the 
object which their heavenly Father has in view in sub- 
jecting them to their present disciplinary state of good 
and evil, rewards and punishments. Love is the ful- 
filling of the law, and our Savior declares that heaven 
and earth shall not pass away till every jot and tittle of 
the law is fulfilled. But how are God's creatures to 
fulfill a law which they do not understand? how are they 
to love that which they do not know is lovely? and 
how are they to know that which is lovely but by a 
comparison of it with an opposite quality, with some- 
thing unlovely? and how with their capacities would 
they be able to make this comparison, unless they 
were placed in a state where they could in some way 
be brought to feel the good flowing from the lovely ob- 
ject, and the evil resulting from the unlovely object ? 
If any one should ask the question why God so constitu- 
ted man, that itshould be necessary for him thus to derive 
his ideas of good, thus to be subject to vanity, I answer 
that the question might as well be asked, why God 
created man at all. Other created beings than men 



SERMON X. 



239 



doubtless exist, but a- being constituted differently from 
man would not be man. But God has seen fit to cre- 
ate such a being as man. And it is evident that a 
perfect God has not acted imperfectly in so doing. It is 
the office of a rational creature not to question the pro- 
priety of his maker's creating him, but to use his rea- 
soning powers to the best advantage in justifying the 
ways of his maker towards him. Perhaps it is not im- 
probable however that there is no created intelligence 
in the universe, but what in some world or other has 
passed through a state of good and evil. In the resur- 
rection, our Savior declares that we shall be as the angels 
of God, but in the resurrection we shall have been sin- 
ners. May it not be then that the angels of God have 
been sinners? Paul makes no exception of any crea- 
ture, when he says, ' for the creature, or creation, was 
made subject to vanity.' 

But this attempt to account for the admittance of 
sin into the universe falls short of being satisfactory, if 
we admit the doctrine of endless misery, or in other 
words, if any individual is to be a loser by that exis- 
tence which it was equally in the power of the Creator to 
withhold or bestow. It does net indeed derogate from 
the perfection of God, not to be able to perform what 
would imply a contradiction. And to make intelligent 
creatures free agents, and yet to make them incapable of 
abusing their freedom might imply a contradiction. Un- 
less the foreknowledge ol God be limited, he must have 
known that intelligent creatures, endowed with liberty, 
would by the abuse of it plunge themselves into guilt 



240 



SERMON X. 



and misery. The difficulty therefore is to reconcile the 
goodness of God with his bringing creatures into 
existence, under circumstances, and endowed with 
powers, by the abuse of which he knew before he 
made them, they would make themselves endlessly 
miserable, so that existence would prove a curse to 
them. If he could not have made such a being as man 
without endowing him with such a capacity of sinning, as 
he knew would make him an ultimate loser by his ex- 
istence, he certainly had it in his power not to have 
made him. And to human reason it seems more 
benevolent of the two, not to have made, than to 
have made, with the knowledge that the being created 
would, by the abuse of the power with which he was 
endowed, make himself miserable eternally. Virtue, 
which is the result as we have shown of free-agency, 
is doubtless attended with exquisite pleasure. But with- 
out this agency, mankind might have been in a certain 
degree happy. They might have had physical enjoy- 
ment, such happiness as the brute has. 

If therefore the greater part abuse their free agency, 
and make themselves miserable, more happiness might 
have been enjoyed by them as a race of beings without, 
than with this agency. And more benevolence would 
have been displayed on the part of their maker in having 
made them physically good and physically happy, than 
to have entrusted a higher virtue and a higher happiness 
to a freedom by the abuse of which he knew they 
would bring on themselves such woful consequences. 
The father of ten sons having an inheritance for them 



SERMON X. 



241 



all, would see a fitness, when they were of age, to put 
each one into possession of his inheritance. But 
if he knew that by an abuse of their inheritance, they 
would make themselves more miserable with it, than 
they would without it, he would retain it in his own 
power and give it out in such portions as would pre- 
vent their misimprovement. Or if he knew that a part 
of his sons by being in possession of their inheritance, 
would render themselves more happy with it, and that 
the other part would not. he would give it to those on- 
ly who would make a good use of it. As God has given 
this discretion and benevolence to parents to lead them 
so to conduct upon a certain knowledge of the actions 
of their children, he must be posseised of these quali- 
ties in a higher degree. In fair reasoning therefore it 
may be concluded that God upon a certain foreknowl- 
edge that mankind would make themselves miserable 
eternally, by the abuse of free agency, never would 
have brought them into existence with such a power; at 
least no more of them that he knew would make a good 
use of k. 

Whatever the difference may be between a judicious 
and benevolent parent, and his little children, it cannot 
be greater than that between God and the most exalted 
of his creatures. And would a judicious and benevo- 
lent parent calmly look on and see his little children, 
though they had sense enough to keep out of the fire, 
run into a flame by which they would be utterly con- 
sumed? To teach them discretion, he might suffer 
them to feel the pain in a certain degree; but if he ha4 



£4$ SERMON X. 

power to prevent, he would never suffer them to be 
consumed. How then, think you, would the benevo- 
lent Jehovah, the Father of us all, have endowed 
mankind with a power, by the abuse of which he knew, 
when he gave it, they would make themselves eternal- 
ly miserable ? 

To account then, upon the principle of free agency, 
for the introduction of sin, while yet it is contended 
that sin is an infinite evil and will bring endless woe 
on a great portion of mankind, is no more satisfactory 
than to account for it on any other principle. We 
want some solution of the difficulty that shall vindicate 
the benevolence of God. Provided he knew mankind 
Would so abuse free agency as to be wretched forever, 
from fair deduction I do not see how his benevolence 
can be vindicated, in the eyes of man ; for to human 
reason it would appear more benevolent not to have 
made, than to make with a certain knowledge that the 
being created would make himself endlessly miserable. 
If you say God did not foreknow it, then you impeach 
his infallible knowledge. If you say, that God knew 
sin, by which a certain part of mankind would utterly 
perish, would be the unavoidable consequence of free- 
agency, then you indirectly attack his power, or his 
wisdom, or his goodness. Thus you will be driven to 
detract from the acknowledged perfections of the creator: 
and view the matter as you will, all the reasons which 
you can assign to account for the introduction of moral 
evil upon the supposition that it brings with it conse- 
quences of endless misery to any individual will, 



SERMON X. 



243 



traced through all their consequences, involve some 
inconsistency, absurdity, or impiety. 

The only solution is, that the whole system is capa- 
ble of the greatest degree of felicity of which infinite 
wisdom, power and benevolence could make it; that 
this system consists of various orders, each enjoying 
a happiness the best suited to its state and capacity, and 
each subjected to partial inconveniences for the good 
of the whole; and that, notwithstanding these partial in- 
conveniences, not only each order but every individual 
of each order, shall enjoy in the whole of its existence 
more than it shall suffer, and be qualified for higher de- 
grees of enjoyment by its sufferings. 

The conclusion then is, that God has created man, 
endowed him with certain limited capacities which he 
is to exert in a limited sphere of action, that he has 
given him a certain fund of abilities for the acquisition 
of virtue and consequent happiness. For his existence 
and natural endowments he is wholly dependent on 
the gracious will and power of his Creator. For the con- 
tinuance of his good in time and eternity he is wholly 
indebted to the gracious constitution of the physical 
and moral laws which the Creator has established. 
For the advantages by which he is surrounded, and for 
the physical and moral powers by which he is enabled 
to avail himself of those advantages, and thus render 
his existence a blessing to him, he is likewise wholly 
dependent on the free grace of God. But God having 
thus formed, placed and endowed him, has, after con- 
stituting him a free moral agent, left him to act as freely 



244 



SERMON X. 



and independently within his little sphere of action as 
God himself acts freely and independently in his unlim- 
ited sphere of action ; so that in regard to free-agency, 
man is made in the image of his Maker. But it 
is of great consequence to man how he conducts, how 
long and how deeply he makes himself miserable by 
the misuse of his powers, or to what heights of goodness 
and enjoyment he attains by the rightful improvement 
of them. Yet the Creator in the exercise of his infinite 
knowledge, benevolence and power so constituted his 
nature, and so hemmed in the sphere in which he is to 
exercise his free agency, that there are limits set as well 
to the degree and direction of the misery which it is in 
man's power to bring on himself by the abuse of his 
moral freedom, as there are to the degree of excel- 
lence to which he can attain. 

If these conclusions are founded in truth, we per- 
ceive that by human reason, the ways of God can be 
justified to man, and that in the moral world, all things 
are as well-ordered and sure as in the natural. What 
a glorious being then is God ! What claims has he on 
our constant gratitude, love, and obedience ! How 
ought we unceasingly to adore the riches of his good- 
ness, and strive to copy into our own hearts and lives 
an image of his perfections. 

Come then, all ye that labor and are heavy laden 
with terror or grief, come to Jesus Christ the Savior of 
sinners, and through him to his Father and our Father, 
to his God and our God. Here is a source of unmin- 
gled joy. O how tender is the mercy of heaven, how 



SERMON X. 



245 



full of hope and peace is the declaration that God is 
good ! I trust there is not one of us but, at this mo- 
ment, feels in his bosom the warm thrill of confidence, 
gratitude and love to his Maker. O, if the Christian 
ministry had but been true to its trust, it seems to me 
that ere this, the whole world would have been recon- 
ciled to God, would have been Christians. We say, 
then, to the advocates of all partial systems — systems 
of eternal cruelty, urge upon us no doctrine which sub- 
verts and unsettles the conviction of God's eternal 
goodness. Cast no stain upon the spotless character of 
our Father In heaven. Urge upon us no sentiment 
that tarnishes his mercy, saps the foundation of all hap- 
piness, all hope, and all heaven ; but leave us that 
cheering, that animating, that soul-satisfying sentiment, 
that we all have one Father, and that he is good unto all. 



21 



SERMON XI. 



HUMAN GUILT WITHOUT EXCUSE. 
Romans i. 20. — e So that they are without excuse.' 

The object of the Apostle in the text and context is 
to exhibit the evil consequences threatened upon sin, 
and to show that the Creator has afforded men such 
means of knowing him and his requirements, and such 
motives to seek and to serve him as to leave them des- 
titute of all just grounds of excuse for swerving from 
his commandments. He says, ' For the wrath of God 
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and un- 
righteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrigh- 
teousness. Because that which may be known of God 
is manifest in them ; for God hath showed it to them. 
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the 
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things 
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; 
so that they are without excuse, because that when 
they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither 
were thankful.' 

The plain doctrine of all this is, that God has given 
his rational creatures such capacities, endowments, and 
various advantages for attaining to piety and virtue as 
render them, if they fail to become pious and virtuous, 



248 



SERMON XI. 



grossly criminal and utterly inexcusable. This senti- 
ment I shall now endeavor to illustrate by exhibiting 
some of the numerous defences with which we are pro- 
vided against impiety and vice. 

In the first place, God has given us reason and un- 
derstanding to discern between truth and falsehood, 
right and wrong, good and evil. These are gifts which 
form the chief basis of man's superiority to the other 
inhabitants of the earth, of his relation to higher spir- 
itual natures, and of his accountableness for his actions. 
By reason and intelligence he can take his flight through 
the immensity of space, soar to distant worlds, and el- 
evate his contemplations to the throne of the Deity, 
and to him that sitteth thereon. He can regard him- 
self as a conscious being, distinct from every thing 
around him, and yet in his body, bearing a relation to 
all the elements and the various forms of matter, and 
in his mind claiming kindred with spiritual intell : gence 
of the loftiest dignity. He can live in the past, and 
commune with the spirits of the mighty dead, draw in- 
struction from their researches, profit from their expe- 
rience, be incited and animated by their virtues and 
success, be warned by their frailties, misfortunes, or 
downfalls, and gather various lessons of wisdom from 
the events of even remote antiquity. He can investigate 
the proper and improper motives of human conduct, 
and trace effects through a line of intermediate events 
to their distant causes. He can judge of what is to be 
by what has been. He can hold up the light by which 
he has surveyed the sepulchres of ages gone by, and 



SERMON XI. 



249 



cause its rays to stream upon the night of time to come. 
He can thus walk forth from the hermitage of reflec- 
tions upon the past, to be the prophet of the future. 
"He can travel in spirit through the regions of splendor 
above, he can penetrate the darkest recesses of the 
earth beneath. He can roam through regions of pos- 
sibility, conjecture and action. He can apply all his 
observations and knowledge concerning what surrounds 
him to himself. He can thus learn what he is, and 
what he is not, — of what he is capable, and what is above 
his powers, — what he ought to do, and what he ought 
not to do, — what he may hope to be, and what he 
should fear to be, — where he should repose his trust, 
and from what he should withdraw confidence, — how 
he should estimate the value of things, — how pursue 
some objects, how shun others, — and by what rules he 
should moderate his wishes and desires, and govern his 
whole behavior. It is the inspiration of the Almighty 
that has given him this reason and understanding. 
Herein he has provided us with a strong guard against 
wrong-doing. ' When a proposition is distinctly and 
fully presented to the understanding, it rarely, if ever 
decides erroneously with regard to its truth or falsehood,' 
its propriety or impropriety. It never declares in favor 
of a known sin, but all its decisions are against it. 
When we sin, it is not usually in obedience to the dic- 
tates of our own understanding, but in opposition to 
them. Our sins also, are sometimes, in Scripture, at- 
tributed to inconsiderateness, to a neglect of consulting 
whether what we are about to do is right or wrong, 
21* 



250 



SERMON XI. 



1 My people, ' says Jehovah, 1 do not consider,' It is 
true that the understanding may be darkened and per- 
verted so as to become an erroneous guide, but it is not 
the natural character of the understanding to decide 
erroneously upon any proposition which is presented to 
it. We may indeed misjudge, and so be led into seri- 
ous errors ; but we cannot be led into sin by our un- 
derstanding, for sin is a violation of what we understand 
to be right. The understanding never decides in favor 
of our pursuing any course which we know in itself to 
be wrong, and which, were we to judge impartially, as 
in the case of another person, we should condemn. It 
must first be sophisticated, and warped by evil inclina- 
tions, and criminal indulgences, before it will decide 
falsely. As the Apostle observes, it must first be 
< blinded ' by 1 the God of this world, ' that is, by long 
habits of sin, before its decisions become perverted. 
Without such perverting influence, he plainly in- 
timates that the understanding would perceive clear- 
ly and determine justly. A blinded understanding, 
then, is the effect of sin; but in its natural and unbi- 
assed operations, its whole influence is opposed to sin, 
its whole strength cast on the side of virtue. If we 
occasionally fall into error, we may honestly plead in 
extenuation a defective understanding. But if we fall 
into sin, if we do that which we believe to be for our 
happiness, but which we know to be morally wrong, 
we cannot justify ourselves by the plea that God has 
not endowed us with a sufficient capacity to distinguish 



SERMON XI. 



251 



between right and wrong, between what we ought to- 
do, and what we ought not to do. 

A second defence against sin which the Deity has 
implanted in our moral natures is conscience. Wheth- 
er this faculty is usually distinct from reason and un- 
derstanding or not, it is not necessary here to inquire. 
It is enough for my present purpose to know that we 
are accustomed so to consider it, and hence, have given 
it a distinct appellation. A nice critic might, I am 
aware, accuse me of philosophical inaccuracy, but my 
great object is to be generally understood, and for that 
reason 1 use words in their popular sense. There is a 
moral sense, an inward monitor, whose operation we 
all feel in some degree or other of perfection in our 
breasts, and which we call conscience. Its office is to 
ascertain the quality of our actions, to notify us of 
sin, and to dissuade us from it, to show us what is 
virtue, and to stimulate us to the practice of it. It is 
enthroned in our souls, to take cognizance of all our 
actions, and when correctly informed, it determines 
with the greatest accuracy the moral quality of our 
conduct. When our actions are in accordance with the 
known laws of God, it fills the soul with complacent 
emotions; when they are at variance with these laws, 
it consigns us to the torments of shame, remorse and 
apprehension. The mind can present it no temptation 
sufficient to bribe it to pronounce a false verdict. — By 
no effort of the will can the sinner silence its upbraid- 
i ngs. He must use means to drown all reflection be- 
fore he can escape the reproaches of this faithful mon- 



252 



SERMON XI. 



itor of the breast. If he sins, he cannot justly plead 
that he is not provided by nature with a guardian to 
warn and dissuade him from it. On this ground, then, 
he is without excuse. 

In the third place, as a preventive to sin, God has 
prescribed to us laws for the moral government of our 
conduct. These laws are communicated to us in a 
two-fold manner : through the intimation of our own 
minds, and by the w T ord of God. They are said by 
the Apostle to be written on the heart ; that is, the 
understanding with which God has endowed us dicov- 
ers in certain actions a fitness or unfitness, a right or 
wrong, in reference to some known law. But the un- 
derstanding left to itself, does not always discover the 
whole extent of moral obligation, but is liable to be so 
perverted by corrupt inclinations as to be incapable of 
discriminating with accuracy. God, therefore, has gra- 
ciously seen fit to make a transcript of the moral law 
written on the heart, to give it a complete and definite 
form, and to embody the entire sum of our duty in his 
word. He has thus furnished us with general princi- 
ples, precise and positive commands and prohibitions, 
and faithful instructions in regard to our duty in all the 
relations of life. If we sin, then, we sin against the 
best light of our own souls, and the clearest teachings 
of revealed truth, — and are therefore without excuse. 

Fourthly, we are without excuse for our sins because 
the Deity has invested us with as full power to learn 
what is true as to learn what is false, to choose what is 
good as to choose what is evil, to do what is right as to 



SERMON XI. 



253 



do what is wrong. Moral freedom is a splendid en- 
dowment of the human soul, and forms the ground of 
its accountableness, and chief worth. The sun, mov- 
ing through the heavens in majesty, is glorious ; the 
moon, walking in brightness, and the stars adorning the 
midnight sky, are beautiful ; but they pursue all their 
movements and operations by fixed, mechanical laws 
unknown to themselves. They roll on through the 
immensity of space without any self-determining prin- 
ciple, and unconscious of their use and destination. 
The beasts of the field are impelled by blind instincts 
of nature: but man, though influenced by laws and 
motives independent of himself, is not wholly subjected 
to their control. He can by an effort of his will, throw 
himself into a thousand different attitudes, so as to vary 
the operations of these laws upon him, so as to change 
and control the effects they tend to exert on him. He 
can put himself under the steady and habitual influ- 
ence of one set of motives or of another, just as he 
pleases. He is not therefore necessarily the slave of 
any outward impressions. He can now flee from the 
power of objects and associations which he finds are 
exerting a prejudicial influence upon his virtue and 
happiness. He can then place himself beneath the op- 
eration of more benign and auspicious influences. He 
can gain a mastery over his passions and appetites; he 
can bend their power in favor of virtuous pursuits. He 
can thus withstand their allurements, and rise superior 
to their control. He is not therefore necessarily the 
slave of lust. He can adopt firm resolutions, and by 



254 



SERMON XI. 



various means gather around them great moral strength, 
and thus enable himself constantly to fulfill them. If 
he has been led into error, if he has turned aside into 
a wrong way, he need not remain there. The light of 
truth is not shut out from him, he can discover his mis- 
take, and by a timely repentance forsake it and alter 
his course, change his conduct, and in future regulate 
his life by more prudent rules. He is not therefore 
necessarily the slave of an imperfect judgment. Thus 
he can be virtuous if he chooses to be, and he cannot 
be sinful without the Consent of his will, without choos- 
ing to do that which his understanding and conscience, 
if he gives them a fair hearing, will tell him is wrong. 
He has then, just as much natural and moral ability to 
do right as he has to do wrong. 

But fifthly, on the score of motives, the Creator has 
furnished man with the strongest motives possible to 
encourage him in virtue, and to dissuade him from vice. 
If he will make that exertion of his will which it is in 
his power to make, and place himself beneath the in- 
fluence of these motives, he must be inclined to virtue. 
In nature and in revelation God employs the most pow- 
erful persuasives to lead us into a life of holiness. He 
has established even in this world an intimate connec- 
tion between virtue and happiness, and between sin and 
misery ; so that merely from our experience in regard 
to ourselves, and the conduct and fate of others, with- 
out the aid of revelation, we may be thoroughly im- 
pressed with the correctness of one of its most impor- 
tant declarations, 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that doth 



SERMON XI. 



255 



he also reap. He thatsoweth to the flesh, shall of the 
flesh reap corruption.' This principle is as plainly true 
in the moral as it is in the natural world. The contin- 
ued practice of any known sin, is attended with evil 
either to the health, reputation, or property of him that 
is addicted to it. Disease and premature death follow 
directly in the train of intemperance, and the various 
vices of sensuality. Ignominy and ruin tread on the 
heels of falsehood and all kinds of dishonesty. 

This intimate connexion between vice and misery is 
of divine appointment. God has established it, un- 
doubtedly with a design to deter us from wrong, and 
to reclaim us when we have sinned. I am aware it 
may be said we see much in the present constitution 
of things of a different moral tendency. We often see 
the good man borne down by affliction and sorrow, con- 
demned to sickness, poverty, and unmerited reproach, 
while the unprincipled and vicious are triumphing in 
their sins, rioting in the enjoyment of firm health, am- 
ple possessions, and popular favor. True, there are 
exceptions to general rules, and cases of this character 
are exceptions to this very general rule, that ' the 
righteous shall be recompensed upon the earth, much 
more the ungodly and the sinner.' 1 have no wish to 
evade the force of what to me is as manifest a fact as 
any other, that some very corrupt men in this life, en- 
joy much more pleasure than others who are examples 
of goodness. I look upon it as all sophistry of the flim- 
siest character, to pretend the contrary. David was 
fully convinced of this. When he saw the prosperity 



256 



SERMON XI. 



of the wicked, his heart was grieved within him, be- 
cause he could not reconcile the retribution which took 
place in this world, with the justice and equity of the 
Divine Being. Speaking of the prosperity of the wick- 
ed, he says, ' There are no bands in their death, but 
their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as oth- 
er men, neither are they plagued like other men. 
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain, 
violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes 
stand out with fatnes * ; they have more than heart can 
wish. They are corrupt and speak wickedly concern- 
ing oppression, they speak loftily. They set their 
mouth against heaven, and their tongue w r alketh through 
the earth. And they say, How doth God know ? And 
is there knowledge in the Most High ? When I thought 
to know this, is was too painful for me, until I went in- 
to the sanctuary of God ; then understood I their end/ 
To prevent mankind from regarding sin with less 
terror on account of this occasional apparent inequality 
in rewards and punishments in this life, the sentiment 
has been diffused over the whole world, that there 
is a state of retribution hereafter. As to the existence 
of such a state, by far the greater part of Jews, hea- 
thens, and Christians have been agreed ; and few doc- 
trines, I believe, regarding a future existence, are ca- 
pable of so much defence from the simple light of na- 
ture, as this. The wisest philosophers, ancient and 
modern, who have attempted to vindicate the ways of 
God to man, have regarded retribution as taking place 
in a future world. Viewing, as they have done, the 



SEHMON XI. 



257 



impossibility of supposing that in every case, just and 
equal rewards and punishments were awarded here, 
they have of necesssity been forced to admit the pro- 
priety, and extreme probability of retribution being ex- 
tended to a future state. Sound philosophy, it is true, 
could fix no arbitrary punishment even there. It could 
fix none that would war with the attributes of infinite 
wisdom and goodness, none but what was the natural 
and inevitable consequence of long- fostered, evil incli- 
nations, dispositions and desires. Nor could natural 
philosophy extend even these consequences to eternal 
duration. Viewing, as it does, mankind as beings ca- 
pable of continual improvement, philosophy itself would 
consider that the great and good Being who endowed 
them with the capability of improving in wisdom and 
virtue would devise means for their instruction, and so 
arrange the disciplinary influences that were to act up- 
on them as to effect the final attainment of the end for 
which they evidently were created. She could not sup- 
pose that an all-wise, almighty, and infinitely benevolent 
Creator would bring from unoffending nonentity, any 
being into existence, either with the design, or at the 
risk of its being an infinite loser by that existence which 
it was equally in his power to withhold or bestow. To 
me the doctrine of future retribution is inseparably 
connected with the doctrine of a future life. Perhaps 
the strongest argument from reason alone in favor of a 
future state at all, is the inequality of allotments and 
retributions in this world. It has certainly been the 
great argument of the most enlightened writers in all 

22 



SERMON XI. 



ages, on the subject. I know that in the time of our 
Savior and his apostles, among the Jews and heathen 
it was a commonly received doctrine, that sinners were 
liable to punishment of some kind and duration or oth- 
er after death; and I do not know of a single text in the 
New Testament to discountenance it-. The common- 
ness of the opinion might have been a strong reason 
why it was not more explicitly stated. And I confess 
I am unable to understand the Scriptures, if this doc- 
trine is not by the general current of their teachings 
plainly implied. The same argument does not apply 
to endless misery, for whilst I do not know, of a single 
text in its proper interpretation, which gives this tre- 
mendous doctrine support, I do know of a multitude 
of passages which I am utterly unable to reconcile with 
it. We all believe in a moral death ; and we believe 
that this death is the wages of sin, the death of the 
mind to innocence, virtue, and happiness, and if the 
invisible mind, the conscience, the spiritual nature of 
man can suffer this death in this world, we can readily 
conceive that it may suffer it in another. Painful re- 
flections upon past misconduct, tormenting apprehen- 
sions of future evil, mental darkness and condemnation 
are experienced here, and may be there, if sin is not 
cleansed and pardoned. The mind this year is virtu- 
ous or depraved, happy or miserable, in proportion as 
we formed and cultivated virtuous or depraved habits 
of thinking, feeling, and acting during the year that is 
past ; our manhood is influenced and colored by the 
improvement or misimprovement of our youth ; — and 



SERMON XI. 



259 



why should we not expect that these same minds, if 
immortal, if they survive the destruction of the body, 
should carry with them into eternity the prevailing 
temper they fostered here. To me it is the most nat- . 
ural and philosophical supposition in the world. On 
the same principle that the guilty suffer misery of mind 
in reflecting upon past offences in this world, they may 
suffer in the next. In this state of being, sinners by 
various means may stifle their convictions of conscience, 
cover their sins under some false pretence or error, and 
even glory in their shame, and thus for a season escape 
the due reward of their iniquity. And being thus 
blinded to the evil of their ways, and hardened in in- 
iquity, like the unbelieving Jews, who thought the/ 
did God service in crucifying Christ and persecuting 
his disciples unto prison and death : they know not 
what spirit they possess. But when they are obliged 
to know the truth, and they can hide themselves no 
longer under falsehood aud delusion, they will be 
pricked in their heart with the conviction of their sin, 
like the contemners and crucifiers of Christ. 

From the understanding then, which God has given 
us, from the conscience which he has made his repre- 
sentative in our hearts, from the laws he has commu- 
nicated, from the moral freedom he has imparted, and 
from the sanctions of rewards and punishments in the 
present life and in the future, it appears that we are 
without excuse if we neglect his commandments. Let 
us, therefore, profit by the thoughts which have occu- 
pied us ; listening to the commands of reason and of 



260 



SERMON XI. 



conscience, reverently hearing the laws of God, as an- 
nounced by nature and by Scripture, using rightly our 
moral freedom, and striving to shun the evil conse- 
quences of sin, and to attain the rewards of virtue, both 
in the present world, and in that which is to come. 



SERMON XII. 



ON CONTENTIONS IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

2 Timothy ii. 22, 23. — 'But follow righteousness, faith, charity, 
peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But 
foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender 
strifes.' 

These directions of the Apostle Paul to his spiritual 
son Timothy, show that in his day there were persons 
who were not contented to consent to wholesome 
words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, but 
were disposed to invent articles of religious faith for 
themselves, to teach differently from what Christ taught, 
and casting practical godliness into the shade, to raise 
questions and strifes of words, and to insist upon these 
unimportant matters with so much earnestness and 
zeal as to produce in the place of Christian meekness 
and charity, envy, strife, railings and evil surmisings. 
The pride of opinion, and the love of power are deeply 
seated in the human heart, and in some form or other, 
open or disguised, never cease to operate. 

Whenever or wherever men of active talents and 
ambitious views are found in the church, Christianity 
will be something for them to exercise their ingenuity 
upon. They will ever be engrafting upon it more or 
less of their own speculations, and impressing them 
22* 



262 



SERMON XII. 



upon the minds of their contemporaries, and throwing 
firebrands into the community to enkindle into a flame 
the passions and feelings, and blind and bewilder 
the understandings of men. This is a permanent 
spring of contention in religion as well as in every 
thing else, and will remain so till men begin to feel that 
the gospel is taught more clearly by its author, than it 
can be by any body else ; and especially till they uni- 
versally acknowledge and adhere to those principles 
of individual liberty and responsibility, which he pro- 
mulgated as the inalienable right of his disciples. 
When this shall be the case, when the right of private 
judgment is not only abstractly admitted, but practi- 
cally enjoyed, and such a state of feeling and opinion 
exists that a man may hold or publish any doctrines 
that by fair argument and judicious interpretation he 
thinks be draws from scripture, without being denounc- 
ed and persecuted in this world, or doomed by the 
breath of frail man to endless misery in the next ; when 
not only the direct claim of infallibility by the Catholic^ 
but what is full as bad, the indirect assumption of in- 
fallibility by Protestant sects, shall be laid aside, when 
all this shall constitute the ruling spirit of the church, 
then will the garment of charity cover the wounds 
that have been made in the fair form of Christianity, 
and though her votaries may still approach her altar by 
different paths, and thus take different views of her 
appearance, there will be no strife or envy, or railings 
or evil surmisings among them. 

It will be my object, in the first place, to show that 



SERMON XII, 



263 



these contentions owe their bitterness to the selfishness, 
pride, and other perverted principles of human nature. 

In the second place, I shall call your attention to some 
considerations upon the overbalance of good which 
Divine Providence causes to result from even the 
rancor of sectarian strife. 

The first great cause of heated controversy and ac- 
rimonious contentions among the professors and teach- 
ers of the gospel, is the same with that of all the oth- 
er contentions in the world ; — it is to be found in the 
character of man, in the passions, affections and impul- 
ses of the human heart. Why do men dispute, and 
quarrel, and contend about other things ? Is it because 
the world is not broad enough to contain them or the 
earth not fertile enough to nourish them ? Is it be- 
because they cannot, like Lot and Abraham, say, < Go 
thou to the right hand and I will go to the left, or go 
thou to the left hand and I will go to the right ?' Is 
it because God hath not given enough, and more than 
enough for all his creatures to rejoice and be happy ? 
No ; it is because each and all will not do justly, and 
love mercy, and walk humbly with their fellow men 
and before God in the world. It is because pride and 
passion, avarice and selfishness lead them to do wrong, 
and defraud one another ; or sensuality and sloth make 
them unjust to others, while they are the worst foes to 
themselves. So in religious contention, it is not because 
Christianity is deficient in any of the truths it commu- 
nicates, or any of the precepts and duties it enjoins. 
It is not because it does not contain enough to make 



264 



SERMON XII. 



all men who will receive it in sincerity, wise unto sal- 
vation : it is because the bad passions of men have op- 
erated in religion as well as in all other matters. It is 
because here, also, pride and vanity and ambition have 
been permitted to do their baneful work, disguised un- 
der the forms of a love of God and a veneration for 
truth. 

I do not mean to say that all the contention and 
controversy which have agitated the Christian Church 
have arisen or been continued by the bad passions of 
men. 1 would not be thus unjust to human nature, 
or to the gospel of Christ. I believe there is such a 
thing as a high and holy, unbiassed and single heart- 
ed love of truth ; and that many who have written and 
preached and contended and died for what they be- 
lieved to be truth, have been guided by these princi- 
ples alone. I could point your attention to a host 
of noble martyrs of former and of later days, to whom it 
would be manifestly unjust to attribute any baser motive. 
I only mean to say generally, that that love of power 
which is one of the strongest passions of the human 
breast, has not been completely cooled in the hearts 
of the disciples and ministers of Jesus Christ, or pre- 
vented from exerting its influence. In all ages the 
religion of a country has operated with great force up- 
on its inhabitants, and has had more effect upon their 
character and destiny than even their social or political 
condition. According to its purity or corruption it has 
ever been the great cause which has wrought their glo- 
ry or their ruin, binding them in the iron chains of dez- 



SERMON SIT, 



265 



potism, or enkindling the fire of the intellect and heart, 
giving freedom to thought, and liberty and knowledge 
to the soul. And all who have ever sought for dis- 
tinction and authority in the world, have done homage 
to the universal influence of religion, by appealing to 
its power in the breast of man. There has ever been, 
then, particularly in Christian countries, a strong temp- 
tation to aim at spiritual power, which the ministers of 
Christ have not always had firmness and purity enough 
to resist. If we go back to primitive days, we shall 
find this very principle in operation, to stir up conten- 
tions, and agitate the waters of Christian peace and fel- 
lowship at the head fountain of the church. 

Dissensions and disputes arose among the disciples 
of our Lord, and the intimate companions of his life. 
With his example before them, and the influence of 
his character bearing upon them with all the force of 
daily intercourse, and with a constant sense of common 
danger and common suffering, they were even contend- 
ing which should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 
In the presence of him who washed their feet, we find 
them exhibiting the workings of worldly rivalry and 
ambition ; so that he was under the necessity of using 
the words of persuasion and kindness, and of lifting the 
voice of admonition and authority to quell the spirit of 
dissension, and restore and preserve harmony in that 
little band of fellow-laborers. After the death of Jesus, 
we are furnished in the Epistles with frequent allusions 
to the strifes that arose to disturb the tranquillity of the 
infant church. The cry of ' I am of Paul, and I of 



266 



SERMON XII. 



Apollos, and I of Cephas/ went forth to mar the peace 
of the Christian community planted at Corinth ; end a 
like cry has continued to be echoed and re-echoed from 
age to age in every city, and village^ and hamlet 
where Christianity has been established. Although 
our blessed Savior wore the title of the Prince of Peace, 
and although the annunciation of ' peace on earth, and 
good will to men,' bursting in the shouts of seraphs 
accompanied his advent, yet there never has been a 
time since the fishermen of Galilee forsook their nets 
and followed him, when the love of power has not broken 
forth from the recesses of the human heart to invade 
his religion, and to spread warfare in the ranks profess- 
edly marshalled beneath his banner. 

Whence arose the animosities of which Paul speaks 
in the primitive church ? Was strife engendered in 
relation to any important doctrine of the gospel ? No. 
Some of the converts from the Jewish faith were loud 
in their clamors to keep up the ceremony of circumci- 
sion and other observances of the Mosaic ritual. It 
was too humbling to their pride to surrender the dis- 
tinction which they had been educated to believe was 
given them over all the world beside, and to come 
down to a level with the Gentiles, whom they had been 
taught to look upon as outcasts from the favor of heav- 
en. They wished to usurp authority over the faith of 
others, to dictate to them what doctrines they were to 
hold and what rites they were to practise. The* long- 
cherished pride of opinion, and the prejudices of ancient 
forms and usages, the pomp and pride of a ceremoni- 



SERMON XII. 



267 



ous, an arrogant and imposing religion, all sprung up 
in rebellion against the simplicity, against the free spirit 
of republicanism, of equal rights and equal privileges, 
which formed the very soul and essence, the heart and 
life of Christianity. It is from like causes that the 
subsequent history of the church presents so many 
pages black with the gall of baleful passions, and red 
with the blood of martyrs. The fault has not been in 
the gospel, but in men's hearts. The gospel is full of 
the principles of peace and brotherly love. If man- 
kind would practise in accordance with its teachings, 
this world would be a paradise. But men have per- 
verted its principles, and made them instruments of 
gratifying their base passions, and advancing their sor- 
did interests. What have its professors been wrangling 
about ? The simple facts laid down in the New Tes- 
tament ? Not at all. These are neither denied nor 
doubted by any class of Christians. What have they 
been contending about ? Is it the meaning of those 
great and leading principles of moral obligation and 
duty which Jesus has inculcated ? Not at all. In re- 
spect to these all are agreed. These are all so plain, 
that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err. 
Love to God and love to man, gratitude and reverence 
and general piety towards the Supreme Being, and the 
doing to others as we ought to wish and to expect good 
men to do to us, is all that is required for our salvation. 
What then, have Christians been quarrelling about? 
Nothing but creeds, and formularies, and articles of 
faith. For these, for creeds and formularies, and wild 



268 



SERMON Xlt. 



speculations, and theories of uninspired men, the shelves 
of theological libraries have groaned beneath the pon- 
derous weight of nice definitions, and metaphysical 
subtleties, and infuriated controversy, and bitter sarcasm, 
and impious denunciation. For these the dungeon has 
echoed with groans, for these the gibbet has been rear- 
ed, the rack stained with blood, and the faggot raised 
its accursed flame in the face of insulted heaven. 

Whenever a man takes it upon himself to propose 
and insist upon a written creed distinct from the bible, 
as a standard for the religious faith of his fellow men, 
depend upon it, however much he may think himself 
influenced by a love of truth, he is altogether too much 
under the sway of self-love, of a pride of opinion, and 
a desire of dominion over others. And it will not be 
the case that controversy will cease to be an evil, until 
the Christian world shall have come to the conclusion, 
that the New Testament itself supersedes the necessity 
of any other confession of faith. Men will, it is likely, 
always continue to disagree in opinion ; but there is 
such a thing as having peace and charity in differences 
of opinion ; there is such a thing as agreeing to disa- 
gree. It is no evil for an individual to cherish and 
propagate such views as appear to him most correct. 
It is no evil for another to think differently from him, 
and publish his honest objections to what has been ad* 
vanced. The cause of truth may be essentially pro- 
moted by such means, while the cause of charity need 
suffer no wound. But it is an evil for any one man to 
claim for himself, or for any body of men to arrogate to 



SERMON XII. 



269 



themselves the exclusive right of judging for others, 
and if others dare to dissent from their views, to turn 
them out from the pale of their fellowship, to do all in 
their power to injure their Christian character, to de- 
nounce them as abandoned forever of God, as turned 
over to Satan, and as inheritors of everlasting woe. I 
say this is an evil, this is full of the elements of strife, 
this burns asunder all the cords of good feeling. 

Such is a brief view of the nature and pernicious ef- 
fects of religious strife. It has its origin in the pride 
of opinion, and in the love of power, principles which 
have ever been strongly exhibited in the human char- 
acter, and which show themselves with mournful dis- 
tinctness in the conduct of religious professors and 
teachers all around us. .Preachers cannot bear to have 
their old dominions invaded ; they cannot endure the 
thought that their infallibility is to be questioned ; they 
cannot bear to have views at variance with theirs gain- 
ing ground among their flocks. It is dreadful to have 
it suspected that they can possibly be mistaken. It is 
humiliating that their influence is to be impaired, and 
that they are to be placed on a level with other men — 
to be considered frail and liable to err as others. Hence 
their alarm and resistance to every view of truth which 
olashes with their own. The effects of such feelings 
are to check the progress of liberal and rational inquiry, 
to bind the freedom of the mind, to dwarf the growing 
spirit of the age, to wound charity in the house of its 
professing friends, to give to unimportant doctrines a 
fictitious consequence, to draw attention from what is 
23 



270 SERMON XII. 

essential in religion—the practice of it, and to give it a 
feverish anxiety for what is of far less moment — its spec- 
ulative doctrines ; to stir up broils and contentions and 
heart-burning in families and communities, and thus 5 
by the abuses of religion, to disparage in the eyes of the 
world its real value. 

These indeed are sore evils. But what are we to 
do ? Are we to say that we will regard religion itself 
as a calamity, and withdraw from it all our thoughts 
and anxieties and sympathies ? This you cannot do. 
You are religious beings by nature. Do your best to 
drive away religious thoughts and interests ; there will 
be times when they will claim their power over your 
souls. Even the Atheist must have his religion. He 
may call it by another name— philosophy, if you please ; 
but whilst in words he denies the existence of a God, 
he makes to himself a God ; perhaps he calls it nature, 
but it matters not, — it is a something which interests 
his feelings of a religious character, and perchance he 
is as intolerant a bigot in his opinions as the devotee of 
any religion whatever. Man must and will have some 
religion or other, and if he does not have a rational and 
true one, he will have one that is absurd and false. Do 
you say then you will have your religion to yourself, 
but will not lift a finger to support any religious meas- 
ure? You cannot do so in safety. Other men will be 
active ; and should an illiberal, intolerant religion gain 
a final ascendency, you may live to see the time when 
your own wife and children will be taught to regard 



SERMON XI£. 



271 



you with horror, for not bowing at its shrine and ex- 
erting all your faculties in its promotion. 

In religion as in every thing else, we are called by 
most solemn obligations to take an active part ; not in- 
deed for the building up of a sect, but for the building 
up of the cause of christian freedom and charity. We 
are not to sit down and fold up our hands, and cry 
out, 'the truth is mighty, it will prevail,' but we are to 
have that spirit which says, e the truth is mighty, and 
by the blessing of God upon our exertions it shall pre- 
vail' 

Our duty is plain. We are to investigate truth for 
ourselves, for the truth alone can make us free. The 
more knowledge and liberty prevail, the greater will be 
the prevalence of virtue and happiness. For it is only 
knowledge, it is only truth, that sanctifies and saves the 
soul ; and though many good Christians may be found 
who are in a measure ignorant and simple persons, it is 
not their ignorance, but their knowledge, as far as it 
goes, that makes them good. The more correct ap- 
prehensions we have of all parts of God's truth, the 
better we can be. But while truth should be earnest- 
ly pursued, we are never in our zeal to cast charity in 
the back ground. She in scripture occupies the fore- 
most rank in the catalogue of Christian graces. Char- 
ity is placed before faith, before hope, before knowl- 
edge. In the differences of opinion among Christians, 
a fine opportunity is presented for cultivating and ex- 
hibiting this grace. Were there no prejudices of edu- 
cation ; did all men see with the same eyes, and hear 



272 



SERMON XII. 



with the same ears, and reason with the same under- 
standings, all would think alike, and there would be no 
occasion to exercise charity in the extended sense of 
the term. These occasions now exist, and can be im- 
proved to the cultivation of that grace which is the bond 
of perfectness. Controversy can be conducted without 
asperity, and opposite opinions promulgated and de- 
fended without invective or censure, with that spirit 
which judges not lest it be judged ; and though two 
cannot walk together unless they agree, they can yet, 
let them differ ever so widely, be agreed in this one 
thing — to walk together in peace. And as controversy 
can be conducted without uncharitableness, so doctrines 
can be discussed without being elevated to an impor- 
tance their intrinsic nature does not demand. We 
ought to remember that we are saved not by a right 
creed, but by a right practice, and while we search 
for and contend for the truth, let us contend first and 
strive first for moral goodness. And while w r e are not 
to renounce all controversy, since by so doing we should 
be lending our aid to keep error on its throne, we are 
to seek the best means for remedying and preventing 
it. We are to have fervent charity to all men, — but to 
search the scriptures, and aid according to the extent 
of our ability, every measure that has for its object the 
knowledge and diffusion of the truth. We are, above 
all things, to show by our words and actions that what- 
ever are our opinions and our zeal for the diffusion of 
our doctrines, our first great duty is to be purely and 
practically religious ourselves. And under all the un- 



SERMON XII. 



273 



happiness which the contentions of Christians on earth 
produce, let our souls stretch forward in expectation to 
that hour when we shall know as we are known, and 
meet with that charity that never faileth, to rejcLe be- 
fore the throne of God, 



28* 



SERMON XIII. 



GODLINESS PKOFITABLE TO ALL THINGS. 

1 Tim. iv. 8. — { But Godliness is profitable unto all things, hav- 
ing promise of the life that now is and ot that which is to come.' 

On a former occasion, I introduced this passage as 
the foundation of an inquiry into what Godliness is, 
and wherein its value consists. It was my aim at that 
time to show that Godliness is the frame of a mind pos- 
sessed of a thorough conviction of the existence of 
the one true God, and of correct views in regard to 
his nature, his attributes and will, of what relations he 
sustains towards man, what duties he requires of him, 
what restraints he imposes on him, what rewards he 
offers to virtue, what recompense he theatens upon 
vice, for what end he has created us, why he demands 
our obedience, and what designs he has been pleased 
to reveal concerning the final destiny of our race. I 
went on to show that Godliness was the frame of a heart 
in harmony with an understanding thus enlightened, of 
a heart loving supreme goodness and seeking to con- 
form all its desires and feelings to the law of God, or, 
what is the same thing, to the immutable standard of 
perfect virtue, and thus giving rise to a correct out- 
ward behavior. I proceeded to show that Godliness, 
virtue, true wisdom, and true religion were all to be re- 



276 



SERMON XIII. 



garded as one and the same thing ; — that to possess 
true Godliness or true religion, was not merely to have 
passed through a prescribed routine of peculiar inward 
emotions, either of sorrow or joy, nor yet to practise a 
certain round of outward religious observances, uncon- 
nected with the ordinary feelings and avocations of life ; 
but to have within us a broad and comprehensive prin- 
ciple, which serves to regulate all the desires, aims and 
designs of the heart, and to keep our outward conduct 
correct. I proceeded to show that Godliness, so defined, 
was profitable to all things ; that it exerted a beneficial 
influence upon all aims and callings in life, and that 
its proper office was to teach us how to estimate the 
native gifts of the mind, and how and for what end to 
improve them ; to teach us what value to put upon 
knowledge, upon honor, upon wealth, and upon sensual 
pleasures; for what purpose we are to desire, to pursue 
them, and how we are to use and enjoy them ; — and I 
endeavored to enforce the great truth, that all outward 
goods are blessings no farther than they are rightly 
valued, innocently sought, honestly acquired, and be- 
nevolently and properly used. Godliness, then, my 
friends, is to have within us a strong and energetic prin- 
ciple of right-doing, to have a right understanding, a 
love and an habitual exercise of goodness. In this im- 
perfect world, the principle of godliness is of greater 
strength in some persons who may be called righteous 
men, than it is in others who yet may merit the same 
appellation. Nay, in the same individual its power is 
not always equally felt. Duty appears plainer and 



SERMON XIII. 



211 



conscience is more vigilant at one time than at another* 
But hi general, I doubt not that the distinction which 
the sacred volume observes in drawing a broad line be- 
tween the righteous and the wicked, is a just one. 

Though many shades and degrees of virtue and of 
depravity are exhibited in the human character, yet I 
think that close observation of men and things will al- 
low us to say that while one part of the world is gov- 
erned by one uniform principle — a desire to know and 
to do what is right between man and man, and before 
the eye of strict, impartial and unerring justice — anoth- 
er portion of the community is directed by no better 
principle than this ; — to indulge their sensual appetites 
and passions at all events, and to promote what they 
conceive to be for their immediate advantage, with very 
little regard whether they attain their end by fair means 
or foul, with little or no concern whether they build 
themselves up on the good or evil, the prosperity or ru- 
in of others. 

Here then is the true line of distinction. He is the 
godly man who reveres his Maker, and habitually de- 
sires and resolves to know and to do what is strictly 
benevolent, upright and just ; and in all cases to ab- 
stain from what is wrong. He is still an imperfect be- 
ing, and therefore liable sometimes to fall into error 
concerning what truth and duty are, and to be betray- 
ed into weak or wrong actions ; but when he discovers 
his mistake, he is always ready to rectify it. When he 
is convinced that he has been guilty of an improper 
indulgence, he regrets it ; and it is his first work to 



278 



SERMON XIII. 



guard against a similar failing in future. When his 
conscience convicts him of having done an injury to a 
fellow-creature he makes it his first care, so far as he 
has it in his power, to make restitution. 

Who is the ungodly man? It is he whose sentiments 
and life are under no proper guidance, who heeds not 
the sanctions of religion and morality, whose whole soul 
is absorbed in self, and that self a very narrow and con- 
temptible mass of wrong and mean thoughts, feelings 
and intentions ; who acknowledges no other governor 
than interest, and makes that interest to consist in base 
and sordid gratifications ; who means to obtain his ob- 
jects, perhaps honestly, if he can, but at all events to 
obtain them ; who hesitates not to defame his neighbor, 
to deceive him, to take undue advantages of his igno- 
rance, of the pliability of his temper, or of his embar- 
rassing circumstances, if by such means he fancies he 
shall be able to increase his own reputation or proper- 
ty. It is he who cares but very little how much dis- 
tress he brings upon others, so that he thereby procures 
new means of gratifying bis own depraved inclinations. 
It is he whom, in fine, we call, in common parlance, 
an unprincipled man, who exhibits no fixed regard to 
God, or conscience. Now such a man may do some good 
things, but he generally does them with bad motives. 
He does them perhaps with a view of passing in the 
world for a better man than he is, to conceal or gloss 
over the deformity of some of his vices, and to be there- 
by enabled to enlarge the circle of his abuses on society. 

It matters not w T hat faith he professes whom I have 



SERMON XIIIc 



279 



before described as the godly man — whether he be Jew 
of Gentile, Catholic or Protestant, Episcopalian, Pres- 
byterian, Baptist, Methodist, or Unitarian. It matters 
not by what peculiar forms of service he seeks to hon- 
or his Maker and stimulate his own piety, — he is a good 
man. He honors his Creator by the very best means, 
that of striving to assimilate his own character to His, 
that of imitating Him in doing good to his creatures. 
By whatever religious name he may be known, how- 
ever popular or unpopular that name may be, he pos- 
sesses true religion, and if there is a man in the world, 
on the road to heaven it must be he. Now it is my 
object in the following remarks to show still farther, 
that the religion of such a man is of very great impor- 
tance, first, as it regards the proper enjoyment of this 
world; second, as it concerns that which is to come; and 
thereby to illustrate in the third place, how our reli- 
gious character must be formed and cultivated. 

I am to show, in the first place, that godliness is of 
great importance to the proper enjoyment of this life, 
1 having the promise ' says our text, ' of the life that 
now is.' True religion affords satisfaction in the views 
it brings forward to the mind, and in the sentiments it 
cherishes in the heart towards God. To believe in a 
Supreme Being, of whose nature we can form some tol- 
erably just conceptions through the resemblance which 
our own souls, created in his image, bearto him ; to be- 
lieve that in him exist in perfection all those excellen- 
cies which, though feeble and imperfect in us, de- 
mand and receive our homage and reverence ; to be- 



280 



SERMON XIII. 



lieve that all that wisdom and justice, that kindness and 
compassion which we love in good men is separated 
from all weakness and impurity, and exists in perfection 
in God ; to believe that he is the Creator, the Father 
and unchanging Friend of all his rational offspring ; to 
believe that he requires our obedience, because without 
it we cannot be truly happy, and that he forbids our 
sins, because they war against our highest dignity and 
best interests ; to trust in him as the ruler of all our 
destinies, who has connected no more evil with our re- 
spective allotments in life than is best adapted to the 
most successful development of our faculties ; to be- 
lieve that he inflicts punishment in the genuine spirit of 
fatherly tenderness and love ; to repose in confidence 
on his Almighty arm ; to feel security for ourselves, 
for our families or friends, and for all the objects of our 
affections beneath his just and merciful government ; 
in health and prosperity to lift rip our souls to him in 
gratitude, as the beneficent source of every blessing ; 
in sickness or adversity to be confident that whatever 
he ordains is for the best, and thus to be able to bow 
in humble resignation to his will ; — to believe thus of 
God, and to cherish such feelings in regard to him, is a 
source of purer, brighter, calmer, stronger, more immu- 
table and enduring joy than all besides, within and 
around us, can supply. Wrest from me fortune, repu- 
tation, any thing but the sentiment of God, and I will 
yet smile and be cheerful ; let other blessings pass 
away, but impair net, sully not my faith and hope m 
the Supreme Being. Blot out my fairest earthly pro: 



SERMON XIII. 



281 



pects, mingle wormwood and gall in the cup of my en- 
joyments, but do not erase from my mind the image of 
heavenly love. 

Again, to him whose religion is derived from, or 
nourished and matured by Christianity, is afforded a 
source of superior joy in the contemplation of Christ, 
of the strength of his mind, of the goodness of his heart, 
of the purity of his example, of the wisdom and benig- 
nity of his precepts, of all that he has suffered and 
done to bless a sinful and sorrowing world. 

A third source of happiness to the truly religious 
man, is the harmony and regularity of feeling, the peace 
of conscience and self-satisfaction which he discovers 
reigning in his breast. While brutal lusts and unbri- 
dled appetites and passions are permitted to derange 
and desolate the mind of the bad man, while sensuali- 
ty, while pride, or envy, or malice is spreading disor- 
der and confusion within him, the obedient disciple of 
virtue discovers an order in his views and principles 
and feelings, and is sensible of a composure and a peace 
of conscience which render his existence a delight to 
him. While the one is looking forward with intense 
anxiety, lest disgrace or some just calamity should over- 
take him, while his future prospects are darkened by 
clouds threatening retribution, the innocence of the 
other is ever spreading light and sunshine over his past, 
his present, and his future path. 

But if religion gives to its possessor cheerful views 
of himself, it affords him no less enjoyment in his vari- 
ous connexions with his fellow-men. Regarding God 

24 



STEKMON XIII, 

as the universal Father,- he mist necessarily look upon 
his fellow-men and walk among them as his brethren. 
As he loves the Father,, so he fends his affections bound 
to the children, and his regard for them is not in pro- 
portion to the outward distinction's they wear, but to* 
their true merits, to the inward resemblance they bear 
lo the infinite source of all integrity and benevolence. 
He walks among beings whom he has never injured^ 
and whom he never designs to injure, but whom he 
has every disposition to aid and bless. He moves 
therefore among- them without fear of reproach, without 
being under the necessity of cloaking his real intentions^ 
or endeavoring to appear what he is not. He meets 
many grateful returns of that courtesy and kindness- 
which he bestows on others ; and though virtue does 
not always recompense her votaries with riches orfame ? 
yet she always rewards them with that which is of far 
more worth and without which the most successful fa- 
vorite of fortune is really poor and contemptible — the 
enjoyment of conscious innocence and self-respect, 
But still farther, she prepares and moulds a character 
which is far more likely to succeed in every valuable 
and worthy undertaking than any other. She gives 
habits of reflection y of discrimination,, of cor.ectness, 
and of industry and perseverance,- which in and of 
themselves are better than the gifts of fortune ; which 
are exceedingly certain passports to competence and res- 
pectability. My young friends, in particular, never for- 
get this, — that however poor you may be at your setting; 
out in the world, however little favored by hereditary 



SE11M0N XIII. 



283 



possessions or by family influence, yet if you have 
good principles, if you form right views of men and 
things, if you have strict 'honesty, if you have kind 
hearts, and if you have good habits, — habits of truth, of 
charity, of temperance, of industry, of faithfulness in 
your several callings, of frugality and economy, — yon 
have those means which have ever been the most cer- 
tain procurers of honorable wealth and distinction. 
If you are poor, if you now meet with occasional 
f light from the arrogant and undeserving, if you have 
many discouragements to encounter, and many morti- 
fications to undergo — how much rather would I be in 
your place than be the heir of the richest estate and 
yet the wretched victim of dissipation and vice, — to be 
the heir of an estate which in all probability in a few 
years will be squandered, or which if retained cannot 
give respectability to a worthless possessor. If God 
has given you common health and common sense, he 
has given you the property which if rightly improved 
will make you almost any thing you choose to fee in the 
world* Press on then, ray young friends * do not 
think that religion is an enemy to present advancement. 
No, she is the great aider and director of our best ener- 
gies to their highest attainments. Make of yourselves 
every valuable thing you can be ; get property, get 
'respectability, but get them by such means and by 
•such means only as God and conscience approve. 
Choose rather to starve in a hovel, than to thrive by a 
di honorable act. Be Christians then, my young friends, 
fallow Jesus Christ and to do this you must make up 



284 



SERMON XIII. 



your mind to forsake not only some but all unworthy 
things. f Seek first/ he exhorts you, s seek first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these 
things shall be added unto you f that is, seek first 
that purity of heart, that integrity of principle, those 
amiable feelings, and those good habits, which belong 
to the kingdom of God, and they will of themselves 
prove the most certain and efficient means of promoting 
your success in life, and crowning your labors with 
prosperity. Seek these first ; for without them all the 
wealth, honors and pleasures of the world are glitter- 
ing phantoms,- — are no better than curses in the dis- 
guise of blessings. O my friends, if it were for the 
enjoyment of this life alone, you would be vast gainers 
by being Christians. 

But religion has yet stronger claims to our attention 
than the promise she gives of this life, claims rooted in 
the relations we sustain to eternity, — ' the life which is 
to come.' Yes, my hearers, the soul is of a progressive 
nature, and if she be immortal, as according to Christi- 
anity she is, then every advance she here makes in good- 
ness, is an advance, the influence of which is to be felt 
throughout her whole existence, throughout eternity. 
Of all outward possessions w r e are bereft at death, but if 
our spiritual nature lives after death, then all our acquisi- 
tions of virtue, all the right views we have here obtained 
of God and truth and goodness, all the right feelings we 
have planted and cherished in our breasts, all the order 
and regularity we have established in our principles, 
sentiments and habits, — I say, all these must remain 



'SERMON X1SI, 



with lis after death. These are' the treasures, which 
moth and rust do not corrupt nor thieves break 
through to steal. These constitute the true and im- 
perishable wealth of the soul. These are the pearls 
of great price, which form the unfading ornaments in 
the crown of heavenly bliss. 

Let it then, my dear hearers, be our first care to see 
that our minds are imbued with sound principles, that 
-our hearts are governed by right motives, and that our 
lives are directed by well regulated habits. And then 
we may rest assured of obtaining the best enjoyments 
of this world, and the richest rewards of the next. So 
let us seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 
and so let us rely with full confidence upon the prom- 
ise that all these things shall be added unto us. 

How is this religion to be sought and cherished in 
the soul ? I answer, by receiving Jesus as the author 
and finisher of our faith ; as the divinely appointed 
teacher and guide ; by diligently inquiring lor what he 
has taught, by solemnly and resolutely coming to the 
purpose of making his precepts and his example, as 
nearly as we are able, the uniform rule of our belief, 
our feelings and our conduct; and by firmly going on 
through life, informing our understandings, correcting 
our errors, forsaking our sins, and shaping the general 
tenor of our behavior in accordance with his instruc- 
tions. To seek the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness then is not the work of a moment only, but of a 
whole life. 

Religion is to be sought not merely as a matter of 

24* 



298 



SERMON XTII. 



theory, consisting in correct apprehensions of mind, nor 
yet is it to be regarded merely as a matter of occasion- 
al feeling, throwing itself out in fitful ebullitions from 
an excited heart, but it is to be looked upon, and 
sought chiefly as a matter of action, disclosing its steady 
habitual influence in the practice of a well regulated 
life. If we would be Christians we are not merely to 
think religion, and talk religion, and sigh religion, and 
weep religion, but in the main drift of our lives we 
must properly and faithfully act it. And what is it to 
act religion ? It is not to submit the judgment to the 
imagination ; it is not to madden the passions ; it is 
not to redden the eye with cherished sorrows ; it is not 
to blanch the cheek with desperate fear ; it is not to 
unhinge the health and wither the form with perpetual 
sadness; it is not to train every muscle of the face, to 
a show of peculiar sanctity ; it is not to deaden all the 
charities of the heart and enshroud them in the cold 
folds of sectarian exclusiveness ; it is not to pour de- 
nunciation on every man who is unable to pronounce 
the shibboleth of a religious party. No, this is not re- 
ligion. No part of it has any countenance in the pre- 
cepts or example of the meek and lowly Jesus. I re- 
peat it, this is not religion. 

The question again recurs to us and demands a re- 
ply. What is it to act, to seek and to practise reli- 
gion ? It is from a firm conviction of the being of God, 
from a sacred regard for the holiness of his perfections, 
from a deep sense of responsibility to him, from a 
heart-felt acknowledgement of the righteousness of his 



SERMON XII!. 



287 



law and from a sincere desire to meet his approbation ; 
it is, under the influence of such sentiments and motives 
to strive to shape our conduct in harmony with the 
eternal principles of rectitude and benevolence. It is 
uniformly to exhibit the influence of the religious prin- 
ciple m the various duties and avocations of life. The 
parent who from a regard to the will of the Supreme 
Father, in the management of his household mingles 
wisdom and justice with kindness and love ; — who 
neither by the rigor of arbitrary authority nor yet by the 
weaknesses of ruinous indulgence, sacrifices the good 
of his children ; — who provides according to his best 
means for their bodily and spiritual welfare ; who by 
•even counsel, by just reproof, by correction, by warn- 
ings, by encouragements, and above all by an unsullied 
example, plants in their souls the seeds of honor and 
virtue and trains them up in the way they should go 
for usefulness, respectability and happiness, — that kind 
and prudent parent acts religion. The child that from 
a regard to the holy precept, ' Honor thy father and 
thy mother,' is induced to move on in a faithful course 
of filial affection, submission and duty, — that amiable 
child acts religion. The husband, who with a view to 
the commands of heaven, exhibits uniform fondness, 
constancy and regard toward the partner of his bosom, 
— that husband acts religion. The wife who from like 
motives is tender, faithful, frugal and domestic, — that 
ivife acts religion. The brothers and sisters who are 
influenced by the divine law of love to exclude from 
the family threshold all jealousies, discord and strife 



SEHM0N 5ait» 



and in the habitual interchange of mutual tenderness 
and esteem live together) — those brothers and sisters 
act religion. The master who under a sense of his 
own responsibility to Ms Master in heaven, in his treat" 
ment of his servants mingles discretion with law, mercy 
with justice, compassion with authority, doing all in his 
power to soften the burthen of a dependant state, — that 
kind master acts religion. The servant who with his 
eye on the sacred injunction from above, 'servants 
obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, 
not with eye service, as men pleasers, but in singleness 
of heart fearing God,' studies faithfully to discharge 
the circle of duties which devolve upon his station in 
life,— that servant acts religion. The man of civil of- 
fice who perseveres in a fearless course of frank and 
unyielding integrity, resorting to no dishonorable means 
for supplanting a rival, — who keeps himself above the 
low arts of political circumvention, who never deserts 
principle for policy, but who amid the winds of faction 
and the fluctuations of party, guided by just senti- 
ments, prefers the favor of his God and the approbation 
of his own conscience to success dishonorably won, 
— that high-minded politician, that patriotic son of true 
honor, that honest, noble man acts religion. 

The lawyer who from a sacred respect to the su- 
preme Law-giver, scorns the petty artifices which but 
too often soil the dignity of his noble profession, and 
appears the constant friend of equity and truth, the 
scourge of the oppressor, and the advocate of the op- 
pressedj — that man, towering above the numerous temp- 



SERMON XIII. 



289 



tations which crowd alluringly around him, acts religion. 

The physician who in the exercise of his arduous and 
humane duties, imitates the good Samaritan of our Sa- 
vior, acts religion. 

The preacher who prefers the flock to the fleece, 
who, unstained- by sordid views, and unawed by the 
tumult of popular clamor, manfully plants and main- 
tains his standard on the walls of truth, who bows not 
in homage of arrogant error, fawns not on wealth or 
pride, smiles not on vice, but keeps himself faithful to 
his God, to his Savior, to his own soul and to the im- 
mortal souls on whom his influence is exerted, — that 
preacher acts religion. 

The merchant who disdains the petty meannesses 
which sometimes disgrace his honorable avocation, who 
deceives not his conscience by that infamous maxim 
that ' all is fair in trade,' who takes no undue advantages 
of the ignorance of others, but who from a regard to his 
maker's approbation, conducts all his transactions on 
open, honorable and manly principles, — that merchant, 
thronged as he is with opportunities and inducements 
to swerve from integrity, that honest merchant acts 
religion. 

The seaman that amid the perils and temptations 
peculiar to his profession, keeps his lips from the intox- 
icating draught, his tongue from the defilement of an 
oath, and his feet from the polluted threshold of infamy, 
and who in the war of elements looks up in resignation 
and trust to that Being whose power careers on the 
whirlwind, whose voice commands the tempest to rage, 



290 



SERMON XIII. 



or hushes its clamors, — that seaman, not less in the 
shrouds than in the Bethel, acts religion. 

The rich man who obeys and imitates the great pro- 
prietor of the universe in dispensing from his ample stores 
the blessings of charity, — whose ear listens to the widow's 
cry and the orphan's wail, whose hand is open to feed the 
famishing, to clothe the naked, and whose heart de- 
lights in kindling up the fire of comfort and cheerfulness 
upon the hearth of shivering proverty, — that rich man, 
that steward of Almighty God, acts religion. 

The poor man who bows in resignation to his lot, 
blesses heaven for the share of mercies it has been 
pleased to allot hi/n, receives his little pittance with a 
thankful heart, and improves his humble means with a 
diligent hand, avoids all the harm and does all the 
good he can in the humble sphere in which he moves, 
-—that poor man, no less than his wealthier neighbor, 
acts religion. 



SERMON XIV. 



DELIVERED ON THURSDAY, THE 4tH OF JULY, 1833, 

Lev. xxv. 12. — 'For it is the Jubilee, it shall be holy unto you.' 

The year of Jubilee ushered in by the sound of a 
trumpet and a proclamation throughout the land of 
universal restoration of possessions, liberty and rest, 
was on many accounts, among the ancient Jews, a sea- 
son of great national triumph and rejoicing. Without 
designing to expatiate upon the benevolent object of its 
appointment, or the interesting circumstances attending 
its observance, I have selected the text merely as a 
suitable motto to stand at the head of a few reflections 
and sentiments, such as I deem appropriate to the 
time and place in which we are assembled. We have 
met here, my courteous audience, not to kindle the fires 
of sectarian controversy, nor to blow up the coals of 
political animosities ; not to take sides with any reli- 
gious sect, nor with any civil party. On proper occa- 
sions, it is our duty as Christians to defend what we 
esteem to be Christian truth, and to expose, in a right 
temper and spirit, what to us appears to be noxious er- 
ror. There are occasions, too, on which the people 
should be warned of aggressions upon their rights by 
foreign power, or by domestic misrule. But it is re- 
mote from our present feelings and intentions to canvass 



292 



SERMON XIV*. 



disputed tenets of religious faith or to enlist our pas- 
sions in the turmoil of political strife. We would har- 
bor no burning hostilities in our breasts ; we would 
nurse no spark of hellish malignity in* our souls ; we 
would look upon the time and place as consecrated to 
better feelings- 'The shoes' that in the uneven pathway 
of the world have been soiled by the dust and mire of 
contention and rancor, we would put off from our feet, 
* for the ground whereon we stand,' whether we regard 
the occasion or the spot, ' is holy.' We are collected 
together, within- walls devoted to the service of no ruler, 
but the one supreme God — consecrated to the peaceful 
religion of Jesus — to the independence of the human in- 
tellect — to freedom of inquiry, and to universal charity; 
and we are convened on a day, bringing to mind events 
the most remarkable in the annals of nations — a day sa- 
cred to the cause of liberty, and most dear to the hearts 
of freemen — the Fourth of July, the Jubilee of Ameri- 
can independence :. ' It shall be holy unto you.' Let 
it be holy to grateful acknowledgments of the goodness 
of that Beins; who ruleth the whole earth in wisdom 
and love, and who has so bountifully shed abroad his 
favors on this happy country — let it be holy to rever- 
ent recollections of our ancestors — holy to the praise 
of our national fathers — holy to a cherished sense of 
the inestimable value of civil r.nd religiou.3 liberty — ho- 
ly to a prudent caution against those evils which may 
threaten the purity and permanence of our institutions 
— and holy to a proper understanding of, and a deep 
regard for those principles, manners and feelings by 



SERMON XIV. 



£9S 



which alone true freedom can be guarded and perpet- 
uated. On this great national jubilee, when we behold 
a people of several millions extended over a country, 
whose soil teems with fertility, and everywhere bright- 
ens in the gleamings of a benignant sun upon the well- 
sped ploughshare, and whose rivers and coasts are 
whitened with the sails of a successful commerce, a 
poeple in the enjoyment of a government the most free, 
rights the most equal, and laws the most benign, — a 
people in the prosperous cultivation of the arts and sci- 
ences, and pressing onward and upward in a pathway 
of glory more brilliant than had been conceived in the 
most glowing speculations of political wisdom, or 
dreamed of in the fondest reveries of philanthropy : 
when we behold all this, how can we find a place in 
our hearts for other emotions than those of fervent 
gratitude to that God who lias most mercifully pre- 
served to us these blessings, and of ardent love and 
veneration for those distinguished worthies who bought 
with their blood, and faithfully transmitted to unborn 
generations these precious institutions. 

Let us, then, with hearts warm with pious devotion, 
commune with the spirits of the mighty dead. Let us 
walk among the tombs of our fathers. Let us enter 
the sepulchre of the past ; let us reverently put forth 
our hands to wipe off the dust and mould of forgetful- 
ness from the coffin-lids of the wise and the brave, and 
gaze with filial awe and homage on the shrouded forms 
of patriotism and virtue. 

With a generous tear we will moisten the sod where 

25 



294 



SERMON XIV, 



repose the ashes of that genius and eloquence whose 
hallowed fires kindled the torch of our revolution and 
we will bedew the memories of those sons of valor 
whose blood streamed on its battle-fields. 

A more vigilant, resolute and undaunted band was 
never formed than the august assembly that gave to the 
w 7 orld the immortal Declaration we have convened to 
celebrate, and which you have just heard so impressively 
read. It was not merely a sudden burst of resentment 
at one or two misjudged acts of the British government, 
that had determined them to engage in the perilous and 
sanguinary scenes of a revolutionary struggle. An ef- 
fort at impost, no doubt, hastened, but is by no means 
to be regarded as the whole cause which produced our 
separation from England. The truth is, America had 
arrived at an age that qualified her for freedom, and she 
knew it. She discovered her interests, and her 
strength, and she was unacquainted with any right pos- 
sessed by a government beyond the seas, to lord it over 
a heritage which she by her courage, wisdom and toil, 
had won for herself in these western wilds» The same 
principle, which liberates the child from the mother's 
arms, that of growth, the exhibition of a disposition 
and a capacity to take care of itself, was the efficient 
cause of our emancipation. A milder policy on the 
part of Britain might have protracted, but could not 
have finally prevented our escape from her control. 

America saw that it was manifestly opposed to her 
dignity and her most important interests, to remain 
much longer in the lap of the mother-country, sustain- 



SEHMON XIV. 



295 



Ing the attitude of a dependent colony, subject to the 
arbitrary dictation of a foreign power. Such were 
her cool deliberations ; such were her views, and on 
freedom she was resolved. Her voice of complaint 
against oppression was no muttering thunder of peevish 
discontent, and empty threats rolling in darkness, and 
at a distance from a determination to execute, but it 
was the full bold peal that announced in the vivid light- 
nings of its wrath, the illuminations of the all-conquer- 
ing spirit of liberty. Our patriotic, fathers were ani- 
mated by a courage which no threats could intimidate, 
no danger appall ; and impelled^by a sacred ardor which 
no frost could chill, no sufferings blight. 

With the torch of battle smoking in blood and glar- 
ing with rebellion in one hand, and the banner of their 
country in the other, they rushed upon the fortress and 
carried conflagration to the magazine of foreign despot- 
ism ; and by the angry light of its flames, amid the 
thundering horrors of its explosion, inscribed 'Liberty* 
on the flag of the Union, and left it to wave in triumph 
over the blood-stained ruins of vanquished usurpation. 

The history of the American revolution is marked 
throughout by the most surprising and interesting dis- 
plays of human wisdom, prudence, bravery and virtue. 
It presents to the world the exhibition of a people small 
in numbers, weak in resources, but invincible in spirit, 
grappling in contest with a great, wealthy, powerful 
and renowned nation; and struggling on to final triumph 
through almost every 'variety of ill — now suffering a 
succession of defeats, now wo:|^B3ut with watchings, 



SERMON XIV. 



now famishing- for breaad, now shivering and freezing 
with cold, now witnessing dismay and defection in its- 
ranks, now glared upon by the horrid visage of treason, 
now hearing the .frantic shouts of an exasperated foe,, 
now breasting the merciless torrent of savage barbarity, 
now gazing on the formidable array cf a nation inex- 
haustible in wealth, and the fame of whose triumphant 
arms had filled the world with wonder. And yet at a 
moment when imagination could almost hear the clash- 
ing of future chains, when hope scarce shed a ray 
through the general darkness that brooded over the 
destinies of their country, when with storms of peril 
billowing all around them, they seemed to totter on the 
abyss of ruin, supported by a fixed, determined resolu- 
tion, approximating to omnipotence, they withstood 
every shock of misfortune, braved the fury of every 
untoward circumstance, overleaped every difficulty, and 
came forth from the contest crowned with conquest and 
RonoF. 

Thus in suffering and in sorrow, in danger and in 
death, did our fathers lay the foundations of this great 
and flourishing republic. The roots of our tree of lib- 
erty, like those of the fabled myrtle of JEneas, aie im- 
bedded in patriot blood. 

The principal actors in the trying scenes to which 
we have so briefly and imperfectly referred, are long 
since passed off from the earth - whilst like the rainbow 
that arches the leap of the noble river down the cata- 
ract, the tears of a grateful nation of freemen have been 




SERMON XIV. 



297 



mingled with the splendor of a world's admiration, to 
encircle their tiansit with glory. 

Fellow-citizens, you need no embellishments of 
rhetoric to establish in your minds a lively sense of the 
inestimable value of the free institutions acquired at 
so much cost, bequeathed to you as your inheritance, 
and solemnly entrusted to your guardian care as a 
blessing for remote posterity. 

We all feel that we are exalted to the very gates of 
heaven in respect of national privileges. Let us 
take heed that we grow not dizzy with the height of 
prosperity to which we have attained, that we reel and 
stagger not on the summits of freedom, and that the 
very loftiness of our present station, be not the means 
of giving impulse to our downfall, and of sinking us aw- 
fully deep in the hell of domestic contentions, infamy 
and ruin. The instability of republics has ever been a 
theme of mournfulness to the philanthropist, and of 
triumph to the tyrant. They are exposed to peculiar 
dangers ; dangers against which there is but one impen- 
etrable shield, and that is the virtue of the people, 
a virtue founded upon a general diffusion amongst them 
of intelligence and religion. A government to be sue- 
cessful, must be adapted to the people. An unenlight- 
ened, a sensual, and debased community, will abuse 
liberty — will pervert it to a means of licentiousness. 
He whose whole nature fits him only for a slave, must 
have the necessary restraints of slavery. It was a sage 
maxim of the poet, 

« Who rules o'er freemen must himself be free.' 
25* 



SEKBfOI? XIV* 



The spiritual bondsman, the slave of ignorance, of 
error, of superstition, bigotry, prejudice and passion, is 
utterly unfitted to control the affairs of a people fitted 
for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. And 
equally evident is it, that a community enslaved by 
these evils j is entirely inadequate to the task of self- 
government. The ignorant must yield to the influ- 
ence of superior knowledge,- the weak and foolish to 
the plans and sway of wisdom, the idle and dissipated 
to the mastery of industry and prudence. The slave 
in mind will be, if not nominally, in effect, a slave in 
body, the tool of another, his course influenced, guidedy 
governed by a loftier spirit ; and a nation of intellect- 
ual slaves, let their government assume what name it 
may, republican or monarchical, will be a nation of 
political slaves, bowing in tame submission to the law, 
in servile dependence on the management, and in 
cringing subjection to the usurpations of some politic, 
energetic and daring leader. The excessive populari- 
ty of the Chief Magistrate, especially where the 
grounds of his hold on public favor are at all suspicious, 
is a portentous omen to any free government, and great 
virtue on the part of the people is requisite to prevent 
him either from motives of personal agrandizement, 
or from the influence of his ambitious partizans, from 
overstepping the prescribed limits of his office, and 
committing encroachments upon those rights he was 
elected to guard. And in any case, this public virtue, 
this general prevalence of correct views and pure sen- 
timents in all ranks and classes of the community, is 



SERMON XIV. 



299 



our only rampart against the intrusions of a majority 
upon the legitimate privileges of the weaker party. 

The vastness of our territory forms a broad and 
fruitful field of danger to the quietness and durability of 
our institutions. Our population is spread over an im- 
mense extent of country. The interests of widely sep- 
arated portions of the inhabitants, must in the nature of 
things, be extremely discordant and conflicting ; and 
the effects of legislation however impartial in its designs, 
will consequently fall with great inequality on different 
sections. The law that provides for the benefit of the 
North, may operate with a blighting energy upon the 
interests of the South, whilst that which promotes the 
immediate welfare of the South, may be blasting to that 
of the North. This contrariety of interest is a most 
natural source of dissatisfaction with the government, 
and nothing can prevent it from eventually under- 
mining its peace, prosperity and very existence, but 
the omnipotence of that public virtue which embraces 
within itself a love of country and a scrupulous regard 
for the general weal that will sink all minor considera- 
tions, and dispose the people of each division of our 
land to surrender in their turn personal advantages, the 
retention of which would engender jealousy and dis- 
content. 

Our country is in danger from the excessive love 
of money. I know of no passion more withering to 
the purity of a free government than that of avarice, 
and I know of no form of government more capable of 
exciting and cherishing this pass -on than that of a re- 



300 



SERMON XIV. 



public. Where the avenues to wealth and the advan- 
tages it yields are choked by no laws of primogeni- 
ture, no hereditary titles or distinctions, but are equal- 
ly open to every class of society, — where extensive 
possessions in whatever hands they are held, or by 
whatever means acquired, are accustomed to receive, 
their full tribute of respect — where reputation and hap- 
piness are pi one to be estimated by land measure, or 
by money scales — where the field of enterprize is un- 
bounded, and the facilities of accumulation numerous,' 
influences thicken and impulses beat quick and strong, 
to extend over the community a quenchless thirst for 
gain. And what is more destructive of all that is 
healthful in the social system than a grovelling, all-ab- 
sorbing love of money ? A love which an inspired 
writer, in accordance with universal observation, has 
pronounced to be e the root of all evil/ Let mammon 
become the god of this country — let his infectious 
worship diffuse itself among our citizens, and impart its 
taint to our national character — let wealth be paid a 
profounder homage than talent, intelligence and hon- 
esty — let it be the grand lever to lift stupidity and 
baseness into public confidence and office — let it be 
made the all-engrossing object of general esteem and 
pursuit, and all that is sacred and valuable in the tem- 
ple of our liberties, is at once demolished. When prin- 
ciples of rectitude are trampled upon, and the eloquence 
of conscience is drowned in the universal rage and bus- 
tle for money-getting ; when the freest and holiest 
emotions of the soul are imprisoned within walls of sil- 



SZRMON XIV. 



301 



ver and gold ; when nothing is too precious to be bar- 
tered for lucre ; when the best energies are palsied by 
a sordid debasement, then is the season of triumph for 
tyranny ; then will the rich, the strong, and the many, 
coalesce in oppression of the poor, the weak-, and the 
few. We boast that we wear no fetters of a foreign 
despot, but let us remember that we may forge for our- 
selves chains of gold more enslaving than chains of 
iron. And on what are we to rely as a defence against 
these evils so liable to spring up amongst us ? I reply, 
upon guarding the virtue of the people, by diffusing 
amongst them those expanded views, just principles, 
and correct sentiments which will lead them to value 
wealth rightly — to pursue it honestly, and to employ it 
judiciously and kindly. 

In a republic there is great danger from the violence 
of party spirit. I have already spoken of the una- 
voidable contrariety of interests in a territory so im- 
mense as ours. — In addition to this, all our institutions 
go to encourage free inquiry and to elicit the indepen- 
dent expression of individual sentiment. Among a 
people thus situated and influenced, it is impossible 
that there should be uniformity of opinion in regard to 
all the measures of the administration. Numerous 
causes will be perpetually in motion to produce vary- 
ing parties. 

These, indeed, when moderated by prudence and 
directed by principle, may prove useful checks, the one 
upon the other, thereby guarding from abuse the ad- 
ministration of the government. But unless restricted 



302 



SERjION XIV. 



within proper bounds by the general sentiments of the 
people, the spirit of party becomes a boiling spring of 
faction, pouring over the nation desolating torrents of 
disaffection, virulence and rage. 

Thus I might proceed in avast latitude of remark to 
point out the evils which are peculiarly menacing to 
republics, and to exhibit public virtue as the great and 
only impregnable bulwark of their security. Yes, it is 
,the good sense and good feelings of the great mass of 
the people, it is their knowledge of their true interests, 
and their regard for moral principle on which we must 
rely, to baffle the intrigues of selfish politicians, to 
check the career of ambitious aspirants, to hush the 
tumults of party, and save our country from degrada- 
tion and ruin. We are in no danger from a foreign inva- 
sion, if we can be saved from ourselves. Statesmen may 
frame constitutions, and then wrangle with each other 
about their proper interpretation: they may build systems 
of checks and balances, and theorise upon rights surren- 
dered and rights reserved, but after all, these will prove 
but parchment and paper barriers against power at the 
will of an individual, or a party disposed to tyrannize. 

Arbitrary power never wants ability to construe 
written documents for itself ; and if words will not do, 
it can resort to more efficient arguments. Of what 
avail is the whole system of checks and balances, when 
a popular chief magistrate or a ruling party extends 
its influence through each branch of the legislature, 
and by one means or another controls all its ramified 
operations ? The truth is, there is a certain amount of 



SERMON XIV. 



203 



power condensed in these United States, which will 
spend its force somehow and somewhere ; if net bene- 
ficially, most destructively. If its operations are ob- 
structed in one channel, it will cut for itself another. 
If there is not virtue enough in the great mass of our 
population to see that it is well directed and employed, 
sectional and individual interest will grasp it and per- 
vert it to the most oppressive purposes. It is not 
at all necessary that our country should be called a 
kingdom or an empire, or that our rulers should be en- 
circled by a diadem,- or wield a sceptre, in order to 
constitute us slaves and them tyrants. 

We may be nominally independent republicans, and 
yet in reality, bending under the weightiest servitude, 
beneath the sway of a few unprincipled leaders of a 
misguided majority. 

And it is plain that neither by an attempt to exer- 
cise any constitutional right, nor by any act of open 
violence, can a minor portion of this Union place it- 
self in an attitude in which, if surrounded by a superi- 
or power bent on usurpation, it will not be subject to 
constant oppression. And what security have any of 
us, my countrymen, against an intrusion upon our 
rights of this formidable character ? We have no oth- 
er than what is founded upon the virtue of the great 
body of the people. We must rely upon their quick- 
ness of apprehension to distinguish betwixt right and 
wrong, upon the sense of justice reigning in their breasts, 
and prompting them to do unto others as they would 
that others should do to them, and upon the sway of a 



304 



SERMON XIV. 



wisdom that overleaps the narrow walls of sectional 
feeling, takes broad and comprehensive views of things, 
and induces all classes to sacrifice a private, immedi- 
ate advantage to a general and durable good. Let the 
minds of the people, en masse, be thoroughly imbued 
with intelligence and a deep and true moral sense, and 
at the sight of a system of injustice in exercise by the 
government upon the weakest district of our country, 
a general susp cion and alarm will be excited, the 
springs of public sympathy for the injured will be 
opened, their cry of remonstrance will be anxiously 
listened to, and the voice of popular indignation against 
the agents of oppression, will roll loud and clear from 
north to south, from east to west, from the depths of 
the valley and from the mountain tops. In this case 
the principles and motives of the dominant party will 
be closely examined, its leaders will lose their hold on 
public confidence, its ranks be deserted, its power pass 
into more deserving hands, and thus its abuses become 
corrected. In an enlightened and conscientious nation, 
the triumphs of wickedness must be brief; truth will 
put forth her strength and justice will bear rule. — 
To build up a public virtue which presents so effectu- 
al a rampart to freedom, should be our great and uni- 
ted aim and effort. And how is this to be accomplish- 
ed? I reply, by establishing a liberal system of edu- 
cation, extending to all ranks and classes of our com- 
munity, and by diffusing among them the principles of 
religion. 

In speaking of religion in particular, as a source of 



SERMON XIV. 



305 



public virtue, and thereby of national prosperity, I 
wish to avoid all misapprehension of my meaning, and 
I feel that I am surrounded by circumstances which 
render an explanation peculiarly appropriate. By re- 
ligion, then, in the connexion in which I am now using 
that word, I do not mean an irrational and absurd 
system of ecclesiastical traditions and dogmas, which 
have no better claim to belief than that they are old 
and mysterious, and which when believed, do no one 
any good — exert no beneficial, practical influence. 
No ; an implicit submission of the mind to what is un- 
intelligible and inconsistent, serves to prepare it for 
the endurance of any servility, instead of exalting it 
to freedom. The surrender of our reason to a priest, 
fits us for the surrender of our civil rights to a King. 
In regard to religion, as in regard to every thing else, 
we would earnestly pray with the apostle, ' that we 
may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men.' 

By religion, as promotive of national welfare, I do 
not mean a great burthen of ecclesiastical domination, 
saddled on the shoulders of the State. All history 
tells us that a union of Church and State is a most un- 
holy alliance. Religion in the arms of civil power, 
becomes disrobed of her native simplicity and beauty. 
She appears no longer with a face illuminated by the 
chaste beamings of stainLess innocence and love, breath- 
ing heaven from her lips, and scattering charity from 
her hands. No, she is debased by that union ; she is 
a fallen angel, tricked out in the gorgeous apparel of 
vanity and pride; her cheek burning with the flame of 
26 



306 



SERMON XIV. 



demon passions ; her eye kindling with the blaze of 
sensuality ; with one hand waving aloft the gleaming 
dagger of blood-stained cruelty, and lifting and binding 
with the other the clanking chain of servitude. Well 
were it for Christianity, if in every age of the Church 
its professors had been more mindful of the declaration 
of its distinguished founder, when he affirmed that his 
6 kingdom was not of this world.' 

The reign of Christ is purely a spiritual reign, in- 
vested with no sceptre but that of truth, and having 
nothing to do with earthly governments, but in mould- 
ing the tempers and forming the characters of the indi- 
viduals who compose them. 

By religion, as the foundation of the virtue and en- 
during liberties of a people, I do not mean the exclu- 
sive spirit of a numerous and wealthy sect, rioting in 
the fullness of its power, fixing an arbitrary standard of 
faith, and awing men into submission to it by the hor- 
rors of the dungeon, the rack or the gibbet, or by load- 
ing the non-conformist with reproach and branding him 
with infamy. I know of no greater curse than the tri- 
umphs of religious illiberality. I know of nothing 
more blighting to the cause of freedom, more mena- 
cing to the existence of a Republic, than the success- 
ful exercise of that spiritual tyranny which usurps a 
control over men's consciences ; which uses violence 
in regard to their opinions, awarding punishment as to 
a crime, to the frank avowal of belief. What mere 
mortal holds in his hand a commission from heaven to 
decide for another precisely how much or how little 



SERMON XIV. 



307 



he is to believe, and to visit him with retribution for 
not graduating his faith in exact accordance with his 
scale ? 

Error in doctrine is, doubtless, an evil and ought to 
be opposed, but in a right spirit and by proper means 
— in the spirit of kindness and love, and by means of 
demonstration and argument. Arbitrary force, whether 
it steps out boldly from legislative enactments, or 
whether it creeps in disguise along the influence of a 
strong religious party, exciting popular persecution 
against the avowal of this doctrine or that — arbitrary 
force, I say, though it may silence the tongue, can 
never expel error from the soul — can never make men 
believe correctly, or worship piously. Long enough 
lias the experiment been tried. The faggot's flame 
has roasted the bodies of thousands, but never lighted 
the lamp of truth in a single soul. 

The glowing iron of popular denunciation may brand 
the mark of reproach on the forehead of the victim, so 
as to cause him to walk among his fellow-men a thing 
of dread and horror, but it can never burn conviction 
into his mind. — Truth stands in no need of committing 
violence in its own defence. It wields a sharper weap- 
on than the sword of persecution, whilst error is often 
promoted by injudicious efforts to suppress it. The 
blood that is shed to kill it, not unfrequently becomes 
the very nutriment on which it thrives and fattens. 

By religion, I do not mean a wild and enthusiastic 
zeal, such as enabled Mahomet to fasten fetters of super- 
stition on the eastern world, such as fired the breasts of 



SERMON XIV. 



the crusaders, or such as animated the desolating career 
of jesuitical enterprise. By religion ; I do not mean a 
formal parade of outward ceremonies, nor the incohe- 
rencies of a bewildered intellect, nor the ravings of 
tumultuous passions, nor any thing which carries con- 
fusion to the head, or phrenzy to the heart, or disor- 
der to the life. No ; but in speaking cf religion as an 
agent of public virtue and a minister of liberty, I mean 
a rational, spiritual, generous and practical system, 
whose office it is to impress the mind with a firm con- 
viction of the existence of the one true God, to impart 
a regard for his will as the prime rule of action, a love 
of his perfections, and a submission of the heart and 
life to those holy precepts of his Son which in all their 
tendencies and influences breathe ' peace on earth and 
good will to men.' A religion of this exalted and 
dignified character is God's best gift to his creatures. 
I would that a sense of its importance to the purity, 
peace and general welfare of individuals, and of com- 
munities, were deeply inscribed on every heart. Noth- 
ing will do in the place of it. Talk not of philosophy 
as a substitute for religion. Beautiful as are many of 
its representations, solid as are many of its deductions, 
and valuable as are many of its maxims, it lacks an en- 
ergy to penetrate the soul and sink conviction deep 
in the heart. Specious as it seems in the seclusions 
of abstract contemplation, and benign as may be its 
influence there, it wants an adaptedness to act upon the 
great mass of men, and a power to shield them amid 
the duties, the trials, and the temptations of the world, 



SERMON XIV. 



309 



They have not the time to travel through labyrinths of 
refined speculations. They need a simpler and a more 
energetic director than Philosophy, and such an one is 
found in Religion. She points them at once to the all - 
seeing eye, and to the justly recompensing hand. She 
teaches them their accountableness for their most hid- 
den acts. She associates in their minds eternity with 
time, brings the power of future retributions to influ- 
ence the train of present conduct, animates by the 
hopes of heaven, and cautions by the terrors of hell. 
Her instructions are no matters of mere conjecture ; 
they are plain and positive, and enforced by the most 
solemn sanctions. Talk not of honor as a sufficient 
spring of virtue ; I mean of honor unbottomed upon a 
sense of responsibility to God. 

It is a principle of action unstable as the sere leaf 
that rustles on the breeze of autumn — a principle 
floating on the capricious breath of the multitude who 
now agree to call this, and then that, honorable — a prin- 
ciple whose esteem of men is measured more by the 
success and splendor of their exploits, than by their in- 
trinsic merits — a principle that in many communities 
brands the bravery of a courageous conscience with the 
epithet of cowardice, gives license to the grossest vices, 
and emblazons the bloodiest crimes — a principle no- 
where to be trusted but in a society which religion has 
refined. France once made an effort to be free, and 
in that effort she tested the strength of a philosophy 
that ridiculed, not merely revelation, but the mention 
of a God, and of an honor which spurned the restraints 
26* 



310 



SERMON XIV. 



of his law. The event proved that she was too vicious 
for the possession and enjoyment of freedom. 

Burning with lust, and reeking with crime, her eye 
glanced but to inspire sensuality ; her breath issued, 
but to taint ; her hand touched, but to pollute ; her 
feet trod but to wither. Wherever she advanced, she 
advanced a terror and a desolation. Rapine, devasta- 
tion, blight and ruin were in her march. Her liberties 
were strangled in the vortex of her licentiousness. 
And in every case the resesult of a reliance on like 
principles must be nearly the same. Let infidelity 
seize the minds of the great body of the people ; let the 
altars of piety be demolished; let atheism be enthroned 
on public respect ; let the multitude be persuaded that 
there is no eye in heaven to witness, and no hand 
there to inflict justice on transactions of secret villany 
— that for crime to retreat from the eye of the world 
is to shelter itself from retribution ; that persecuted vir- 
tue has no other protection, and triumphant wicked- 
ness no other avenger, than man ; that nothing is to 
be hoped, and nothing to be feared beyond the narrow 
compass of the present life — let all religion, both nat- 
ural and revealed, be thus treated with general scorn, 
and mournful experience will soon show us that in 
breaking the moral ligaments which bind the human 
soul to the throne of Deity, the most ennobling senti 
ments are prostrated, the strongest motives to virtue 
destroyed ; that the power of conscience is shaken, and 
that all the firmest ties of a pure society are effectually 
dissolved. 



SERMON XIV, 



311 



I know the abuses of religion have been many and 
aggravated. I know that these have been the stum- 
bling-blocks over which multitudes have fallen into 
skeptical distrust ; but on 6 religion pure and undefined/ 
must be our last reliance. It is a sense of our perpet- 
ual responsibility to the Supreme Being for every 
thought, feeling and action, on which alone we can se 
curely depend for a pure and constant virtue ; a virtue, 
vigilant and active in private, as well as in public ; in 
the darkness of midnight, cs well as in the open blaze 
of noonday. Without public virtue, civil liberty is 
baseless ; and without religion, public virtue is but a 
name. Our civil institutions, to be solid and permanent 
blessings, must be supported by the intelligence, chris- 
tian piety and morality of our people. Let these sa- 
cred principles form the basis on which the pillar of 
our liberties rests, and the richest garlands of honor, 
prosperity and glory may cluster and bloom around it, 
without mining its bottom, or staining the beauty they 
fondly entwine. 

Fellow-citizens, let us rightly improve the reflec- 
tions in which we have just indulged. In reviewing 
our blessings, let us be grateful to God ; in venerating 
the memory of our national fathers, let us imbibe what 
was noble in their spirit, and imitate what was pure in 
their example; in surveyiug our dangers, let us be ex- 
cited to caution and vigilance ; in contemplating the 
value of knowledge, let us strive for intellectual ad- 
vancement ; in urging the importance of religion, let us 
be pract c i ly religious ; in sustaining our principles, 



312 



SERMON XIV. 



let us be conscientious and undaunted ; in patriotic de- 
votion to our country, let us be united and zealous — 
and may one deep-thrilling burst of emotion throughout 
this Union ever respond to the chorus, 

' The star-spangled banner, O, long shall it wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.' 



SERMON XV. 



THE FUTURE DESTINY OF MAN. 

[In inserting the following discourse, the Editor would not be 
understood as expressing an entire coincidence in all the views it 
contains. Indeed, it will appear from the memoir, that the opin- 
ions of MrPitkin himself underwent a change in relation to this sub- 
ject, not long before his death. The main arguments of this Ser- 
mon however, are consistent with any liberal and enlightened views 
ot the dealings of God with man in a future state : and the objec- 
tions against some prevalent doctrines which appear to us erroneous, 
are here so forcibly and plainly stated, that the insertion of the dis- 
course has been deemed advisable.] 

John iii. 3. — 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God.' 

The kingdom of God, says the Apostle Paul, is right- 
eousness, peace, and joy in the holy spirit. The new 
birth may be described in a great variety of ways, and 
its true and simple character may be obscured. But 
however it is described, by whatever load of strange 
words it is encumbered, the doctrine itself of regenera- 
tion, in the mind of intelligent Christians of all denom-. 
inations, amounts to one and the same thing, a change 
of the mind, heart and life, from wrong views, feelings 
and practices to right ones. However much we may 
differ on other subjects, on this there is throughout 
Christendom but one voice. It is agreed on all hands 
that when a man ignorant of divine truth, habitually 
corrupt in his affections, and immoral in his life, obtains 



314 



SERMON XV. 



a knowledge of Christianity, and through this knowl- 
edge becomes pure in his affections and correct in his 
practices, he is born again, and thus sees or enjoys the 
kingdom of God. enjoys righteousness, peace, and joy 
in the holy spirit. 

Thus far we are all agreed. I am now ^okio- to dis- 
cuss a controverted point, a question of great importance, 
one in the discussion of which we are all deeply con- 
cerned, and one which has given rise to much contro- 
versy and unfortunately to great bitterness of feeling. 
It is this ; Have we any scriptural grounds to hope for 
the final conversion and consequent salvation of such of 
our fellow-creatures as leave this world without having 
experienced Christian regeneration,that is, without hav- 
ing exercised faith in Christ, and repentance for sin ? 
Now the popular answer to this question is that we can 
have none, that there is no change after death, that this 
life is the only state of probation for eternity, that 
at death, the condition of the soul is unalterably 
fixed, either in immortal happiness, or unceasing 
misery. 

To this answer, common as it is, I have many and 
weighty, and in my view unanswerable objections ; a 
very few of which I beg leave at this time to present 
for your consideration. I object to it in the first place 
because it involves consequences which I am unable 
to reconcile with the impartial goodness of God. For 
if it be true that none can be saved in eternity, but such 
as have experienced faith in Christ here, it is certain 
that the great mass of mankind are forever lost : that 



SERMON XV. 



315 



but a very small — but a comparatively trifling portion 
of the inhabitants of the world in past ages, or at pres- 
ent, can be saved. 

Every Christian will admit that there is no such thing 
as Christian regeneration without faith in Christ. But 
can it be supposed that those little beings who are cut 
off from life in infancy or early childhood understand 
before death any thing about faith in Christ ? A large 
body of our orthodox brethren believe that infants come 
into the world totally depraved. If so they must be 
born again in order to see the kingdom of God. But 
let me ask is there any condition in the Bible whereby 
a sinful soul can become cleansed and saved without 
faith and repentance ; and if little children are totally 
depraved by sin, and if they do not exercise faith in 
the Savior and repentance for sin, before death, and if 
there is no such thing as being regenerated through 
faith and repentance in the future state, what grounds 
can we have either in reason or scripture to hope for 
their eternal salvation? I can see none. The doctrine 
of infant damnation was strenuously preached a few 
years ago. It was preached as many other horrid doc- 
trines have been, till the common sense of the people 
got the upperhand of the dogmas of the clergy, and 
forced that body, as they valued popular esteem, to 
abandon it. But if the common views of infant sinand 
of the impossibility of regeneration after death, be cor- 
rect, I see no just reason why that doctrine should not 
still be maintained. 

I might introduce a like train of reflections, in regard 



316 



SERMON XV. 



to the condition of idiots, but let the cases of those who 
die in early childhood, or in idiocy pass for nothing to 
the point, for though they really present weighty objec- 
tions to prevailing doctrines, yet we can well spare the 
support they contribute to our argument. Let me now 
ask, if there is no regeneration after death, what must 
be the fate of the immense multitude of heathen, who 
have passed off from the earm without even having 
heard the name of Jesus Christ uttered? But is there 
any other name given among men whereby we can be 
saved ? And is there in the whole Gospel any condition 
by which we can enjoy his salvation without having 
believed on his name ? without having exercised faith 
in him? And does not the Apostle assure us that faith 
cometh by hearing? And do not all the efforts made 
by our pious orthodox brethren tend to show how in- 
dispensable to the salvation of the heathen is a knowl- 
edge of the Savior ? And is it not indeed a great cm- 
elty in them to furnish the means of salvation to these 
benighted people, when they are certain so few of them 
will embrace and improve them, if they think the hea- 
then can be saved without the Gospel, and if they also 
believe that those who do have an opportunity of em- 
bracing it, and yet neglect the opportunity, are sure to 
fall into an endless hell at death. The truth is, it is 
out of the question for our Orthodox friends to recon- 
cile either their creed, or their zeal to christianize the 
heathen, with the admission that a soul dying in hea- 
thenism can possibly be saved. I assert then, most bold- 
ly, that if the work of Christian regeneration is limited 



SERMON XV. 



317 



to this life, the inconceivably vast host that for ages 
have successively swarmed in heathen lands, and pass- 
ed off from the earth destitute of Christian faith, are 
lost forever. 

Now, my hearers. I wish to direct your attention to 
a consideration of the condition of the Jews. To them 
the Gospel was first preached. On them the Star of 
Bethlehem first arose, and they refused to be guided 
by its light, and they turned a deaf ear to the teaching. 
For nearly eighteen hundred years they have been sep- 
arated from their ancient dominion and scattered among 
the various nations of the earth, living monuments of 
the truth of ancient scripture prophecy. A great por- 
tion have been born and educated in Christian countries, 
associating in the various walks of life with Christian 
communities, and enjoying every opportunity of be- 
coming Christians. And yet how rare, how almost 
unheard of an occurrence has been the co .version of a 
Jew to Christianity ! In the course of nearly eighteen 
hundred years, millions and hundreds of millions of this 
numerous people have lived and died in utter rejection 
of the Gospel. Now, if there is no such thing as Chris- 
tian regeneration in the future state, it is a plain, a pal- 
pable case to every Christian believer, that this im- 
mense army of God's chosen people are irrevocably 
lost ; and yet among them have been very numerous 
examples of the most devrmt apparent piety towards 
God, and benevolence towards man ; and yet too the 
Apostle Paul asserts that ' All Israel shall be saved, 5 
27 



.318 



SERMON XT. 



and that : God bath concluded them all in unbelief, that 
be might have mercy upon all.' 

We will now bring our thoughts to bear upon Chris- 
tian nations. Look to the immense community be- 
Death the influence of the Greek and Catholic churches; 
and think how small a part evince either by their lives 
or their deaths that they are the true disciples of Jesus, 
Think of the degraded state of morals in Spain, in Por- 
tugal, in Italy and other sections of the world where 
the church of Rome presides in her magnificence; and 
without harboring a doubt that many sincere and pious 
believers are within that communion, yet stretch charity 
to the farthest limit, and what myriads and myriads, in 
her several ages of corruption must, we conclude, have 
sunk from her pale into eternity, unborn of the Spirit 
of Truth ? 

In the next place, to say nothing of the prevalence 
of open infidelity, to say nothing of the thousands in 
France and other countries wlo have lived and died 
in undisguised rejection of the Scriptures, think of the 
numbers in both Catholic and Protestant countries that 
evince a total disregard to the doctrines and precepts 
of religion, that live and die in stupid indifference to 
the concerns of their soul's salvation. Think of the 
millions all around us that are constantly swelling the 
stream of death, without ever having professed the least 
attachment to religious subjects. 

Again, look within the precincts of the several Prot- 
estant cnurches. and think how many of those who ' say 
Lord, Lord,' and who throng the communion tables, are 



SERMON XV. 



319 



to be regarded, by the most expansive charity, in no 
better light than that of mere formalists, self-deceivers, 
or designing hypocrites : think of the thousands that 
wear a religious dress, merely because it is a customary 
or a fashionable one, merely as a badge of introduction 
to more respectable company than they could otherwise 
keep, or to secure popular favor in obtaining official or 
professional advancement, or to attract customers in the 
way of trade. Think of the thousands of young and 
thoughtless minds who are crowded into churches in sea- 
sons of peculiar religious excitement, and who after the 
fever of the first impulse is cooled, are restrained with- 
in them by no better principles than those of pride and 
the fear of a rigid discipline. In the little church of 
twelve members instituted beneath the scrutiny of an 
eye that pierced deep into men's hearts, was a Judas. 
I think it no breach of charity to believe that there is 
now in Christian churches a far greater proportion of 
deceived or deceiving professors than there was in the 
chosen band of our Savior. 

Arithmetic is a useful seience. Let us apply it in 
illustration of our subject. The Christian world embra- 
ces one hundred and seventy millions. These are di- 
vided among the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Prot- 
estant Churches; the first of which is double the 
number to that of either of the others. And you 
know how little hope our orthodox neighbors have for 
this immense community. Taking all the nominal 
Christians there are in the world into the account,— all 
the unregenerate ; all the world's people: all rank 



320 



SEE. HON XV. 



heretics, all hypocrites belonging to the different church- 
es (which in the judgment of a broad charity we can 
hardly suppose less than one twelfth part, as the propor- 
tion was among the Apostles) it would be a moderate 
calculation to say that not more than one out of ten 
dies prepared to meet his God. What then is the re- 
sult ? Out of each successive generation of human 
souls, which are computed to form an average of eight- 
hundred millions ; there are eternally lost ten millions 
of Jews, one hundred and forty millions of Mohammed- 
ans, four hundred and eighty millions of Pagans, one 
hundred and fifty-three millions from Christian coun- 
tries, making the total amount that go to hell every 
generation, supposing it to pass away every thirty-three 
years, no less than seven hundred and eighty-three mil- 
lions, and to heaven only seventeen millions. In ev- 
ery century, according to this calculation, there go to 
everla&ting punishment two thousand three hundred and 
forty-nine millions of wretched souls, appointed by 
their Maker, and given over to endless despair ; while 
in the same time there go to heaven as the purchase of 
Christ's blood, only the comparatively insignificant num- 
ber of fifty-one millions. If we suppose the world to 
exist six thousand years only, and that there are on 
an average twenty-four hundred millions of human 
souls which come into and go out of existence dur- 
ing each century (and that the present time may be 
supposed to yield a fair average) it would give a total 
of one hundred and forty-four thousand millions ; of which 
one hundred and forty thousand nine hundred and forty 



♦ 



SEltMON XV. 



321 



millions of souls will have gone to misery, while on- 
ly three thousand and sixty millions will have gone 
to happiness. 

Now, my orthodox brother, do you not stand appall- 
ed at this horrid picture ? Then you ought to stand 
appalled at the frowning creeds that furnish the canvass 
and the coloring for its direful representation. If, as is 
maintained, not one human soul can ever be saved who 
does not in this life experience religion according to 
the terms and under the forms which are constantly 
urged as indispensable, it follows that in eve.y centu- 
ry the enormous multitude of two thousand three 
hundred forty-nine millions of human souls are crowd- 
ing the portals of endless damnation ; while Christ 
with all the power with which he is clothed is able 
to rescue but little more than one twentieth part 
of that number. How can you reconcile such a view 
with the acknowledged attributes of the Deity or with 
the scriptural representations of the triumphs over sin, 
death, and hell, of the Redeemer? I know you will 
start back from the legitimate consequences of the 
views you are upholding. 

You will begin to retract, you will begin to say that 
some of the Jews, and some of the Mohammedans, and 
some of the Pagans, and some of the heretics in the 
Christian Church, and some of the world's people may 
be saved, not lost. You will summon up every shad- 
ow of hope for death-bed conversions. But in so doing 
you show when brought to the test that your whole 
system totters on pillars of straw. You show, thai 



322 



SERMON XV. 



your bewildered understanding is cleaving to a theory 
which your benevolent hearts rise up to falsify. There 
is no room for retraction. If you will embrace the 
promise, you must not shrink from sustaining its plain and 
inevitable consequences. What is the constant tone of 
your preaching ? Is it not most decidedly and une- 
quivocally that not one can be saved in eternity who 
has not in this world been a believer in Christ ? And 
how often have you heard the same views stated in your 
missionary addresses ? Let me ask, are not all your 
missionary efforts predicated upon the supposed fact 
that the heathen are all sentenced to eternal misery, 
and that without a belief in your religion before death 
there is no salvation from them ? If you admit that 
without such a belief a single individual can be saved, 
you at once tear down the bar which you have erect- 
ed, for if one soul may be thus saved, show me why 
all souls may not also be saved. 

The fact is, people are too prone to think on the 
surface of doctrines, without ever diving into their 
awful depths* Thousands of persons limit their reflec- 
tions by the narrow bounds of their creeds, and forget 
that there are human souls as valuable as theirs, created 
by the same Almighty hand, beyond the circle of their 
acquaintance and sect. Like the poor unlettered hind 
who supposes that the visible horizon is the boundary 
of the earth, and that his hamlet is the most important 
portion of the world, they draw a little sectarian circle 
around a small part of God's works, and dream that the 
sun of his love shines only within that narrow compass 
they have circumscribed. 



SERMON XV. 



323 



Now, my friends, can you believe that a God of in- 
- finite wisdom and goodness has brought from unoffen- 
ding nonentity into existence, a universe of wretched- 
ness ? Can you believe that he of whom it is declared 
that he e will have all men to be saved and to come to 
a knowledge of the truth,' has so constituted a world 
that so vast a portion of his rational creatures must in- 
evitably suffer endless tortures, that so few of them will 
obtain salvation ? Can you believe that that God, who 
is good unto all and whose tender mercies are over all 
his works, has brought into being so vast a number of 
creatures, with the seeds of everlasting wretchedness 
deposited in the very germ of their nature ; and plac- 
ed them in a moral soil and surrounded them by moral 
influences to make them sure of shooting forth, and 
growing rank and bearing their destined fruit ? For 
my own part I dare not so impeach the wisdcm of 
God as to suppose that he has so arranged his universe 
that the weight of a whole eternity of consequences is 
left to poise on the tremulous hand of human volition, 
that the hazard of eternal joy or woe is to be decided 
by the short and uncertain game of a mortal life. 

I should deem that father imprudent and unwise in 
the extreme who should throw into the entire control of 
his little thoughtless child, to be squandered by his wit- 
less caprices, the ample estate he had designed for his 
maturity ; but what comparison would the imprudence of 
suspending even the wealth and temporal destinies of 
a nation upon the will of a most capricious child, bear 
to. that of suspending an eternal heaven or hell upon 



324 



SERMON XV. 



the fluctuating turns of mind to which in this short 
and changing life the human soul is subject ? O what 
is frail man, a reed in the wind of circumstance, a leaf 
rustling on the breeze of events, on the gale of preca- 
rious passions, — O, what is mortal man, surrounded on 
all sides by doubt, perplexity, darkness, temptation 
and sin, — O what is he that he should be intrusted by 
his all wise Creator, with the inconceivably momentous 
concerns of an unalterable eternity, all dependant upon 
the influences that act upon him during his brief period 
of mortal existence ? I believe indeed in the freedom 
of the human will, but dare not maintain that the be- 
nevolent Creator has given this active and powerful 
principle to any being with a certain foreknowledge 
that its exercise for a few brief days on earth would 
ensure everlasting tortures to his soul. 

I dare not fling such high charges in the face of 
heaven. I know it has been said that eternal misery 
was necessary to promote the glory of God, and the 
happiness of his saints. But I cannot, I dare not, as 
I value the esteem of my immaculate Maker, even 
dream for a moment, that he can have a glory depen- 
dant for promotion upon the utter ruin of his depen- 
dant creatures. Nor can I dream that the air of par- 
adise is dependant for its odor of bliss upon the 
steams of wretchedness that rise up from the polluted 
gulf of endless despair, to a display of divine justice 
in rewarding men according to the deeds done in the 
body. It is the height of inconsistency for our orthodox 
brethren to pretend that on their system any such dis- 



SERMON XV. 



325 



play is made. On the contrary, if their views of future 
retribution be correct, the vilest sinner, the sinner old 
in crime, if he chances to be placed under influences 
favorable to conversion, and to be converted sometime 
before his death, is admitted into eternal felicity ; 
while a moral man, a Washington or a Franklin, who 
ma) have been the eminent benefactor of his species, 
and who has left behind him no evidence of having ex- 
perienced any thing which the popular religionists of 
our time would call regeneration, is sent to an endless 
hell. 

I can draw no such exact line of distinction between 
the characters, the deserts or the destinies of my fellow- 
men, as seems to be drawn by our Orthodox brethren. 
I have seen human nature sunk into the most mourn- 
ful state of degradation ; but I never met with a man 
so bad but that he might be worse i I never became 
acquainted with a human being, however deeply he 
might be involved in sin, in whom I could not still dis- 
cover some amiable disposition, some feeling of com- 
passion for another's woes, some thrill of benevolence, 
some shuddering of guilt, some sympathy for virtue, 
some redeeming quality, some relic of native purity, 
some trace of the divine image in which the human 
soul was originally formed. On the other hand, it has 
been my happiness to witness among men examples of 
the most exalted virtue, to view human nature brought 
to a degree of excellence, that seemed nearly to verge 
on perfection, but after all I must confess, I never 
met with a man so good, but that he might be much 



326 



SERMON XV. 



better, I have never seen human nature untinctured 
by imperfection, unstained by a fault. Between the 
characters of the best, and those of the worst mem- 
bers of the community, I have had occasion to notice 
almost every possible degree and shade of virtue and 
vice. I have seen in the same individual, great virtues 
associated with great vices, striking excellencies of char- 
acter with equally striking moral deformities. When I 
have looked upon those in the lowest scale of what is 
termed holiness by the church, and upon those in the 
highest scale of what is called morality by the church, 
when in fine I have thought, how trifling, how imper- 
ceptible must be the shade of goodness and depravity 
betwixt them, I have been irresistibly led to the con- 
clusion that there existed no such essential difference 
in human character, as to justify the supposition that 
rewards so disproportionate to merits as those implied 
by our opposers would ever be administered by an in- 
finitely wise and just God. I cannot believe that the 
just judge of all the earth, who will do right, who will 
do every thing in complete accordance with the eter- 
nal principles of rectitude, I cannot believe that he 
will make such an apparently partial distinction in de- 
ciding the everlasting fate of his poor fallible creatures, 
as to give where there is scarcely a perceptible shade 
of difference in character such an infinite difference in 
allotments; to the one part an endless heaven, the other 
an endless hell. Still less can I believe that the vilest 
wretch in existence, the wretch gray in wickedness who 
chances to be placed sometime before his death under 



SERMOX xv. 



327 



circumstances favorable to repentance, and repents, is 
to be admitted into a state of unalloyed and infinite de- 
light, while the amiable and moral young man who is 
cut off without an opportunity to repent is consigned to 
endless woes. Yet such things must very often take 
place if prevailing opinions are true. 

What then are my conclusions? Happy am I in 
being able to find in Revelation an answer in ex- 
act accordance with the views I have gathered from 
nature. My conclusions are these, that every man shall 
be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. 
In this world, I believe a man is, generally speaking, 
happy in proportion as he is virtuous, and miserable 
in proportion to his vices ; and though I am far from 
believing that men are always recompensed according 
to their deeds in this world, yet this very circumstance 
goes far to prove to me the existence of a future world, 
where every thing will be made equal. 

Here indeed I sometimes see a man blessed with a 
vigorous constitution, that carries him perhaps to old 
age in the most debasing excesses ; 1 eee him blessed 
with wealth, with suavity of manners to conciliate 
friends, with talents, or other extraneous ornaments to 
throw a gilding over his vices ; — thus I see him pass along 
with apparent smoothness through life in the exercise of 
example, that throws pollution on every thing around 
it. I see another man, virtuous in his sentiments and 
correct in his example, struggling with the most delicate 
health, with poverty, with coldness from the world, and 
often doomed to sustain for conscience sake the most 



328 



SERMON XV* 



unmerited reproach. Now all the sophistry In the 
world cannot blind our eyes to experience. I cannot 
believe that these two men are recompensed according 
to their deeds in this world; hence I conclude 3 
there is another world in which all these apparently 
crooked ways of Divine Providence will be made 
straight. I have no idea that death, a mere prostration 
of physical energies, a mere destruction of the animal 
body, is either to corrupt or to purify the soul. I should 
as soon think of becoming a man of the most profound 
learning, by losing my arm, a part of my body, as I 
should think of becoming perfectly holy and happy by 
being divested of my whole body* While from the an- 
imal frame, the clay tabernacle, particles are continual- 
ly passing off, so that in a very few years not a solitary 
particle of the body remains, but the whole structure 
is composed of new matter, the mind, the thinking ca- 
pacity, the loving or hating capacity remains. It con- 
stitutes the same person ; amid all the revolutions that 
are £oing on in her exterior kingdom, the soul has a 
spiritual palace of her own, and remains the same. 
Are you wiser this year than you were seven years 
ago ? You are so from the operations of your mind, 
not from the changes of your body. Are you better ? 
The workings of your mind have added to your good- 
ness. 

Now what is the resurrection state ? Surely nothing 
other than the surviving of the soul in another form, 
after the destruction of the body. The soul then I 
suppose to go into eternity with precisely the same 



SEHMGN XV. 



341 



degree of holiness or depravity which it had fostered 
and cherished here. When we speak of the punish- 
ment which God inflicts upon sin, we mean the natural 
and necessary consequences which result to the soul 
from the exercise of sin. If the soul has neglected to 
form and cherish pure desires here, and if it leaves 
the world unreconciled to God, unimbued with his good- 
ness, and carries its depraved dispositions along with it 
into eternity, it must be miserable in proportion as it 
is depraved ; and if by being stripped of those shields 
to the power of remorse which guilt in t! is world puts 
before itself, the soul is operated upon more forcibly by 
the power of truth and is brought to repent of its rebel- 
lion against holiness, and to exchange its sinful inclina- 
tions for holy ones, then the misery it is made to feei 
in consequence of its guilt becomes an instrument in 
the hands of divine grace to purify it from sin, to make 
it a new creature, to make it alive in Christ; and when 
through such influences all human minds shall be made 
thus alive in Christ, then will be fulfilled the scriptural 
declaration, 'as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall 
all be made alive.' Then will be realized the vision 
of John in the Revelation, f And every creature 
which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the 
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in 
them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, ?nd glory, 
and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb, forever and ever.' 

Now, how far the agency of man to make himself 
miserable is permitted to extend, we know not. Rev- 
elation is silent on the subject. We are ignorant 
therefore of both the possible degree and the duration 



842 



SEHMON XV. 



of misery. We have therefore every possible motive 
on the ground of caution to be exceedingly alarmed at 
our iniquities, and to forsake them without delay, to 
' cease to do evil and learn to do well/ 

I object to the doctrine which maintains that those 
only who have come to a belief in the gospel in this 
life can be saved in eternity, that it is at war with the 
plainest scriptural promises, connected with the gospel 
blessing. St Paul informs us, Gaf. iii. 8, 4 The scrip- 
ture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen 
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abra- 
ham, saying ? In thee shall all nations be blessed/ 
This he explains verse 16, • Now to Abraham and his 
seed were the promises made. He saitb not, and to 
seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, 
which is Christ.' If we turn to those scripture prom- 
ises recorded in the book of Genesis, we shall find 
this promise which was made to Abraham, renewed to 
Isaac, and expressed in the fullest manner to Jacob. 
Gen. xxviii. 14. e In thee and thy seed shall all the 
families of the earth be blessed/ This blessing, St 
Paul explains to be justification through faith. The 
promise, with the Apostle's comment, t ffords a full and 
direct proof of the point in question. A false faith is 
not a justifying one. A dead faith would be a curse, 
and not a blessing. The justification through faith 
here promised was to be a real blessing to all the fam- 
ilies of the earth. The Angels who proclaimed the 
birth of Christ to the shepherds, said, f Fear not, be- 
hold I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall 
be to all people/ But surely the gospel cannot be 
great joy to all people, nor to any people, till they be- 



SERMON XV. 



343 



lieve it ; and they must believe it with a saving faith, 
or it will only aggravate their misery. St Paul, speak- 
ing of Christ, says, Phil. ii. 9, c Wherefore God also 
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name that is 
above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in 
earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory 
of God the Father.' Now every thing in heaven, in 
earth and under the earth, strictly speaking, will togeth- 
er comprehend the whole created universe. When 
this revealed purpose of the Deity shall be fulfilled, 
where will be found the unbelieving, unsubdued rebels 
against his authority ? 

To what conclusion then in regard to our subject 
must we arrive ? To my mind it is as clear as if writ- 
ten in sunbeams ; that Jesus Christ was born and came 
into the world, as he testified to Pilate, for this one 
great end, to bear witness to the truth ; — that he found 
the souls of men lost in ignorance, in error, and in sm f 
and that he came to save that which was thus lost ; 
that he was called Jesus because ' he should save his 
people from their sins,' that he came to open the blind 
eyes to the light of truth: that he came to open the deaf 
ears by the power of his impressive and eloquent in- 
structions, that he found a world darkened by Jewish 
traditionary corruption, bewildered by gentile philoso- 
phy, and cramped and fettered by pagan idolatries 
and superstitions ; and that he came to deliver it from 
these, and from consequent degradation and misery, in- 
to the knowledge of the one true God, into just con- 
ceptions of his nature, attributes, requirements and pur- 



344 



SERMON XV 4 



poses, into the love and practice of virtue, and inio 
that felicity which in this world and the next follows 
in the train of wisdom and holiness } — that to accom- 
plish this end he taught and labored, wrought miracles^ 
suffered, died and rose again ? to confirm the truth he 
declared ; and that through the truta thus established 
he strove to redeem the wandering and captive soul 
from its delusive bewilderment, and its chains of spirit- 
ual bondage ; — that for this end he delivered his testi- 
mony to his disciples, commissioned them to preach it 7 
and thus made provision for its faithful transmission 
in the collected form of the New Testament to all fu- 
ture generations. This divine testimony, this record 
of truth, this embodied system is called the Gospel, a 
name signifying good news, or a kind message. 

Now he that believes what it teaches is saved— 
from what? From wrong views,, and wrong feelings 
towards God and man, and wrong practices and conse- 
quent punishment. When is he saved ? Just as soon 
as he believes. How far is he saved? Just so far as 
his belief is correct and as it induces him to forsake 
sin. He that believeth not this testimony is condemn- 
ed. Condemned to what? To the loss of all that di- 
vine knowledge which the gospel contains ; to the 
loss of that purity which it inspires ; to the loss of 
that practical morality it enjoins ; to the consequent 
loss of all those delightful hopes and encouragements 
it presents ; to the loss of that peace and satisfaction 
it affords. How far is he condemned ? Just in pro- 
portion as he wilfully blinds his eyes to the truth ; just 
so far as he is left in ignorance and error ; just so far 
as his affections are impure, and his life immora . 



-SERMON XV,. 



345 



How long is he condemned ? Just so long as he persists 
in his opposition to the truth and remains in any degree 
enslaved to error and vice. In fine, the salvation of 
man in this world we have no reason to suppose is 
ever complete, but he is in regard to this, a gainer, 
just as he is in regard to every other subject, in pro- 
portion to his devotedness to the truth, and a loser in 
proportion to ins neglect, slothfulness or contempt m 
respect to the truth. He is saved by believing the 
gospel, so far as his belief renders him wiser and better 
and happier, and he is condemned for his unbelief so 
far as his rejection of the gospel leaves him involved 
In ignorance, error, wickedness and misery. 

I have one farther objection to urge against the opin- 
ions I have set out in this discourse to oppose ; and 
let me add, it is one of far greater weight in my mind 
than all the others I have adduced. The heathen, 
however sincere in his idolatry and however upright 
in his life, is doomed to endless woe, for not having 
had faith in a Savior of whom he had never heard ! 
The Jew, however honest in his attachment to the 
religion of his fathers, however pious in his devotion to 
the one God of the Old Testament, — the Jew, who 
though persecuted in every country, though set up as 
a target of reproach for bigotry and fanaticism to 
pierce, though passing among the nations a bye word 
and a reproach, though impelled by every earthly in- 
terest to change his creed and his national name, — 
shows his sincerity by braving the frowns of an unjust 
world in his adherence to his faith, is doomed to irre- 
trievable woe, tor not embracing a system which all 
the influences of his birth and education would make 



346 



SERMON XV, 



him tremble to embrace ! Eternal salvation, upon the 
orthodox system, does in no wise depend upon the 
amount of good or evil we have practised on earth. 
No ; it depends upon the circumstances of our hav- 
ing believed certain doctrines, and passed through 
certain forms and feelings. The Unitarian who can- 
not in the Bible find the Trinity, or the dogmas of Total 
Depravity, Election and Reprobation, and Endless Mis- 
ery, though sacrificing every thing like popular favor 
and worldly interest upon the altar of his conscience, 
and though ever so diligent in his search for truth, 
and though ever so honest in the conclusions at which 
he arrives, though ever so liberal, charitable and for- 
giving towards his enemies, and though ever so blameless 
in his life, is sentenced to irretrievable ruin for under- 
standing his Savior to mean what he said when he de- 
clared, 1 My Father is greater than I (John xiv. 28.) 
Whilst the man who knows nothing of scripture from 
his own examination, but believes implicitly as he is 
taught by his priest, and is able to relate strange and 
mysterious feelings, though he retains wealth dishonor- 
ably gotten, though he is denouncing and intolerant, 
and though a great part of his life has been spent in 
high-handed acts of wickedness, is r.t death received 
up to glory. 

But upon whatever salvation depends, whether on 
faith or works, or both, it is unreasonable to suppose 
that mankind have on earth any thing like a fair, suffi- 
cient, and equal state of probation for it. It may in- 
deed be a sufficient trial to draw down unceasing tor- 
ment upon the souls of millions. But in no sense can 
it be called fair and equal. No one of us can help the 



SERMON XV. 



347 



fact of his having been born and educated under un- 
favorable circumstances ; and yet these circumstances, 
we all know, give a strong bias to our leading senti- 
ments and characters. Let me ask then, supposing 
for instance Presbyterianism should prove to be the 
true and saving faith, if the child of pious Presbyteri- 
an parents, lisping its first accents in a Presbyterian in- 
fant school, drawing in the Presbyterian doctrines in 
its earliest childhood in a Presbyterian Sabbath school, 
and constantly trained at home and at church to Pres- 
byterian tenets, — let me ask if there is any comparison 
in the chance for salvation of such a ohild, and the off- 
spring of a Jew., bom and educated under influences so 
strong and so unfavorable to the embracing of Christian 
faith, that an instance of Christian conversion can 
scarcely be found recorded among the millions of his 
people ? Mankind too are cut down in all ages. 
Thousands of children have died when they had com- 
mitted but few sins and enjoyed but a few hours of 
probation ; and yet a single sin unrepented of, we are 
told is sufficient to procure eternal wrath. Others 
have lived to old age. Let me ask, has the child 
enjoyed as fair a trial as the old person ? Look 
over the community and see how exceedingly favora- 
ble are all the influences that act upon one mind, and 
laow unfavorable are those operating upon another, 
and then recollect that a whole eternity of joy or sorrow 
is urged to be dependent upon the course pursued dur- 
ing this short and unequal probation of mortal life? 

And can you while supporting prevailing opinions 
vindicate the ways of God to man ? We are taught in 
Scripture, Psalm cxlv. 9, that ' The Lord is good un- 



348 



SERMON XV. 



to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.' 
Again it is declared, Mai iii. 6, e I am the Lord; I 
change not.' If God's mercies are over all his works, 
and he changes not, then he will continue to be mer- 
ciful to all his creatures throughout all eternity. The 
Scriptures abound in promises that sin shall be des- 
troyed, and this proves that the means of grace are not 
limited to this life. Daniel speaking of the Messiah 
says, chap, ix. 24, ' He shall finish the transgression 
and make an end of sin, and brine in everlasting rifffat- 
eousness.' St John says, John i. 29, 1 Behold the 
Lamb of God which laketh away the sin of the world ;' 
and St Paul declares, Heb. ii. 14, that Jesus Christ took 
part of flesh and blood, 1 that through death he might 
destroy him that hath the power of death, that is the 
Devil and, Romans v. 29, that £ Where sin abounded, 
grace did much more abound.' John the Evangelist 
says, c For this purpose the son of God was manifested, 
that he might destroy the works of the Devil.' Now 
if Christ shall finish transgression and make an end 
of sin, take it away from the world, destroy the Devil 
and his works, and cause grace to abound beyond the 
power of sin and death, then there must be repentance 
unto life beyond death ; for this work we know, is not 
accomplished in this world. In further proof that 
the means of grace will extend beyond death, we will 
notice a few of those passages which speak of the final 
reconciliation of all things. 

Jesus says, Matt. xi. 27, c All things are delivered 
unto me of my Father.' John vi. 37, 1 All that the Fa- 
ther giveth me shall come to me ; and he that corneth 
to me, I will in no wise cast out.' Verse 39, ' And 



SERMON XV. 



349 



tbis is the Father's will who hath sent me, that of 
all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but 
should raise it up again at the last day.' John xii. 32, 
( And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
men unto me.' In the fifth chapter of Romans the final 
holiness and happiness of all men is expressed as ex- 
plicitly as it can be in human language; the Apostle be- 
gins at the 18th verse, and says, 'Therefore as by the 
offence of one, judgment came upon all men to con- 
demnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the 
free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 
For as by one man's disobedience, many were made 
sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many,' [just 
as many] ' be made righteous. Moreover the law en- 
tered that the offence might abound ; but where sin 
abounded grace did much more abound : that as sin 
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign 
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ 
our Lord.' 

In the foregoing language the following particulars 
are distinctly brought to view. Firstly, that as con- 
demnation comes upon all men in consequence of sin, 
so shall the gift of eternal life come upon all men, 
through Jesus Christ. Secondly, just as many as were 
made sinners, shall be made righteous. Thirdly, that 
where sin has abounded, grace shall much more 
abound. And fourthly, he tells us how far sin doth 
abound, and then, how much farther grace abounds 
than sin. Sin reigns unto death or condemnation ; — 
but grace reigns unto eternal life. How any person 
can read these texts and not come to the conclusion 
that it was the apostle's design to teach the final holi- 
ness and happiness of all, 1 know not. 



350 



SERMON XV. 



Then if all men shall be made righteous, the work 
of regeneration will extend beyond the grave, for it is 
certain all are not made righteous in this life. 

Again, this same Apostle declares in the eighth chap- 
ter of Romans, verses 19 — 23, ' Fcr the earnest ex- 
pectation of the creature, waiteth for the manifesta- 
tion of the sons of God. For the creature,' or the 
whole creation, as the original Greek words are with 
more propriety rendered, 1 was made subject to vanity 
not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected 
the same in hope, because the creature itself also, ' the 
same creature or creation that was made subject to 
vanity, ' shall be delivered from the bondage of cor- 
ruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
For we know that the w T hole creation groan eth and 
travaileth in pain together until now. And not only 
they, but ourselves also which have the first fruits of 
the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves 
waiting for the adoption, to wit : — the redemption of 
our body.' This language is plain and explicit, and 
fully proves the final reconciliation of all things. It 
assures us that the whole creation, which is now groan- 
ing under the bondage of corruption, shall be delivered 
from this bondage into the glorious liberty of the chil- 
dren of God. 

Again, this same apostle says, 1 Tim. ii. 4, that God 
1 will have all men to be saved, and to come to a 
knowledge of the truth ;' and Peter declares, Acts iii. 
21, that c the heavens must receive' Jesus 'until the 
times of the restitution of all things, which God hath 
spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the 
world began.' Who now can doubt the final restitu- 



SERMON XV. 



351 



tion of all things, since it is declared by an inspired 
Apostle that this restitution has been spoken of by the 
mouth of all God's holy prophets since the world 
began ? 

Again, Paul declares, 1 Cor. xv. 22, 1 For as in 
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
alive.' And again he says, 2 Cor. v. 17, ' Therefore 
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old 
things are passed aw r ay, behold all things are become 
new.' The first of these texts declares all shall be 
made alive in Christ, and the other that he that is in 
Christ is a new creature ; therefore all must be made 
new creatures, and if all must be finally made new 
creatures, then the work of regeneration must extend 
beyond death, for all are not made alive in Christ, or 
new creatures in this life. Again, the apostle says, 
Eph. i. 9, 'Having made known unto us the mystery 
of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he 
hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of 
the fullness of times, he might gather together in one 
all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and 
which are on earth, even in him.' The expression, 
' gather together in one,' signifies to reduce into one 
sum or whole, a number of scattered and disunited 
parts. Again, Col. i. 19, c For it pleased the Father, 
that in him should all fullness dwell ; and having made 
peace through the blood of his cross, by him to rec- 
oncile all things unto himself. By him, I say, wheth- 
er they be things in earth, or things in heaven.' 

God declares by the prophet Isaiah, xlv. 23, c Unto 
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 
Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness 



352 



SERMON XV. 



and strength.' And the Apostle Paul expresses the 
same sentiment, though in stronger terms. Phil. ii. 9, 
'Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him 
a name which is above every name ; that at the name 
of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, 
and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and 
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father.' Bowing the knee 
must certainly mean humble submission and adoration. 
And the expressions in these passages are absolutely 
universal. They take in all in heaven, on earth, and 
under the earth, and represent all as making the same 
confession. Therefore all must either be willing or 
unwilling subjects. If those in heaven shall confess as 
willing subjects, those on earth and under the earth 
must, for all are to confess alike that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Finally, the 
scriptures assert, 1 Cor. xv. 25, that Jesus 1 mustrngn 
till he hath put all enemies under his feet.' And Rev. 
v. 13, ' And every creature which is in heaven, and 
on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in 
the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Bles- 
sing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him that 
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever 
and ever.' 

If these passages do not prove the final subjection 
and reconciliation of all things to God, it is impossible 
to express that idea in any language whatever. 



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